Anyone playing bit Generations games?

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:08 pm

For the unaware: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/bit_g/index.html

I was interested in three games from the series, Coloris, Dialhex and Dotstream. I found the first two at a local shop and finally played both today.

Coloris is shite. But then I hate Columns and Puyo games. I thought that somehow it'd have a little more than those. And I guess as it stands it's some kind of (shitty IMO) cross between Panel de Pon and Columns. The video shows some beautiful art stylings in what I presume to be later levels but the beginning stinks so bad I'll never see 'em through playing the game.

Dialhex on the other hand is totally brilliant. I suppose if you watch the video there won't be much more I can tell you about it. There is a bit of optical illusion on the playfield that doesn't seem as evident in the video where everything looks like cubes and has a strange feeling of visual depth. I'm pretty blown away by this game.

Dotstream just looks like fun. Sweet Tempesty vectory graphics and a soundtrack obviously made with Little Sound DJ (or somesuch similar) and I'm sold. I just need to buy it

Although the other games sure don't capture my fancy, I really like this thing that Rez and Luminese kicked off with the retro style graphics put together with a sort of "modern awareness" and emphasis on interesting sound.

Anybody playing this stuff? Thoughts?

Pa

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:01 am

I red a comprehensive article / revie on our edge, and have been curious since.

But are they sold in the EU?

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:14 am

Dunno, sorry.

pa

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:30 am

WTF!

I never even heard of these games or the series before.
Am I right to qualify this stuff as "electroplankton like games for GBA"?

Probably not, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

In any case I want to learn more about his stuff, as it looks seriously cool to me!

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:27 am

I have Dotstream and DigiDrive. Dotstream is great and simple. Just guide your beam of light picking up speed. Anytime you move up or down you lose some speed. The key is to stay adjacent and tight to the beam just ahead of you and your line creeps up. Of course, there are power-ups and speed bursts, etc... Really a great game.

DigiDrive is the traffic flow game, and while it seems like it should be fun, it is very difficult to grasp. Something to do with same shapes going into queues and... Geez, I can't even explain it. The game is just odd and hard to grasp without the manual.

But, if you are going to buy one, defintely go for Dotstream. It is one of the few games ever made for a handheld that actually has awake in bed playing it.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:51 am

I've erm... sampled... some of them (Boundish, Dialhex, and Dotstream)...

I think Boundish is ass and I didn't like Dotstream too much. But Dialhex is dangerously addictive, I was very surprised. I am glad I didn't buy the first two, but once I am sure I have enough money to pay my car insurance, I'll probably put in an order for Dialhex.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:53 am

this is the first i've heard about them but Dialhex looks really, really sweet.

i'm about to head to florida in a couple weeks, but after that i'll definitely be placing an order

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 3:34 pm

Dialhex pwns my brain right now. Holding my gameboy up to my face is making my elbows sore.

Pa

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 7:58 am

Bumping an old-ish topic, but Yesasia now has these listed at $18.99 (vs. $24.99 at play-asia).

As promised, I've gotten off my ass and ordered Dialhex... albeit along with some Yifei CDs so I still ended up spending a large chunk of cash..

Anybody tried Orbital or Soundvoyager? I'd like to know what they're like before I impulsively shell out any more dough... Might think about DigiDrive also...

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:56 am

The music on the web page is really nice. Definitely curious about these games.

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:53 pm

I bought Soundvoyager and Orbital back when they were released. Orbital is a simple yet nicely presented and addictive little game. Soundvoyager is the most interesting one though, its innovative game design means you wear headphones and use sound exclusively for gameplay... no graphics, so you can play with your eyes closed, or with the Gameboy left in your pocket since you don't need to see the screen.

NTSC-J · Post by **NTSC-J** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 5:03 am

I bought Dotstream the other day and didn't care for it at first, but have since warmed up to it. Gets really hard later on, which is what I'm all about.

The copy I bought was used so everything was already unlocked which was a shame, but I've been trying to beat all of their high scores. Formation mode I don't quite understand yet, I only got 61 pts compared to the author of the guide on gameFAQs who got 90 pts in it...naturally, the previous owner of my cart got over 25,000 so I think maybe I'm missing something.

Post by **Icarus** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 5:18 am

These look pretty good. I've always been a fan of little novelties, and these are pretty cheap.
Time to start a collection I reckon.

Post by **system11** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 10:59 pm

I've got Coloris, Dotstream, Gigadrive and Orbital. I'd say my favourite is probably Gigadrive - very clever when you work out what's going on. Dotstream is damn hard, but good. Orbital is a chillout game, and Coloris starts bland, but quickly turns into a total bitch, with colour tones and mixing to match.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 4:12 am

I picked up Dialhex on an ill-fated journey to the local import store last week, and have been playing it quite a bit since then. It's a bit short on depth, but still enjoyable. What does everyone have for high scores on Endless now? (Mine is up to 156.)

Also, someone on NeoGAF did recordings of the music from the Bit Generations games, which can be found here if anyone's interested.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 5:32 am

I'm at 198 for Endless mode in Dialhex... Damn I was so close to breaking 200!

I also added a few more Chinese CDs to my yesasia order though, so my shipment date will be pushed back a bit further as yesasia tries to source an older album...

Now I'm really interested to try Gigadrive...

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:34 pm

I have dotstream and my mom has dialhex. We got them for Christmas. Both are excellent.

Dotstream is addictive. I like how dotstream has a formation mode as well as the racing. Controlling multiple lines at once is quite fun. The racing is well done too. I like how the game has multiple GPs. I also like how the game has power ups. The streaming mechanics are a blast.

My mom is addicted to dialhex. She plays it more than Dr. Mario/Panel de Pon now and, unlike with that game, she even played with the music turned up.

BTW, the title of that one game is DIGIdrive, not Gigadrive. Here's a link. It's even in English on the box. I definitely plan to pick it up, though.

Play-Asia has all of the bit generation games on sale for $14.99 except for Coloris (which will probably go back on sale soon if it follows the same pattern as the others).

themachinist · Post by **themachinist** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:07 am

I'm sorta into the sound/color/puzzle type games and I just picked up a complete digidrive off a different forum. I didn't feel like trying to make any sense of the japanese manual so I just popped it in and gave it a go. It was sorta confusing at first but between experimenting and online descriptions of how to play I'm getting the hang of it. Luckily the previous owner only got like 99m so there aren't any heinous numbers clogging up the scoreboard that weren't done by me

.

Anyway, now I really want to get some other bit generations games, specifically dialhex, orbital and dotstream. Play-asia is out of them... anyone know where I can find them new?

Udderdude · Post by **Udderdude** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:10 am

Wish these games came out over here .. instead the GBA got a bunch of shitty throwaway licensed cartoon games in it's dying breath. Great job Nintendo.

Jockel · Post by **Jockel** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 9:19 am

Didnt we have a Bit Generations thread already?
I recall that i posted that Digidrive was the shit, and somebody agreed with me ^^"
Edit: Nope, it was the Rhythm Tengoku Gold Thread
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=21435

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 1:08 pm

Dialhex and Orbital are both available on the Wii via WiiWare, btw. Both have been altered visually and neither look as attractive as they did on GBA - especially Orbital, which is now really muddy and actually quite ugly - but they both play the same as they always did.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:46 pm

E. Randy Dupre wrote:Dialhex and Orbital are both available on the Wii via WiiWare, btw. Both have been altered visually and neither look as attractive as they did on GBA - especially Orbital, which is now really muddy and actually quite ugly - but they both play the same as they always did.

Orbital/Orbiter has streams showing the gravitation pull on the Wii, which it didn't on the GBA. I heard it has extra levels on the Wii too.

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:02 pm

Dialhex is great, so is Rotohex (wii version). Cubello, the wii exclsuive game, is also excellent. Skip just keeps on giving and giving! I hope Captain Rainbow comes out in america.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:56 pm

themachinist wrote:Anyway, now I really want to get some other bit generations games, specifically dialhex, orbital and dotstream. Play-asia is out of them... anyone know where I can find them new?

Dialhex is great! But it looks like you could be stuck with eBay... or GaijinPunch maybe?

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:59 pm

BrianC wrote:Orbital/Orbiter has streams showing the gravitation pull on the Wii, which it didn't on the GBA. I heard it has extra levels on the Wii too.

Yeah, the visual representation of gravitational pull is new. It doesn't really add anything to the gameplay, though, and helps to make the Wii game look a lot uglier than the GBA one - robs it of the visual purity that it used to have.

Wasn't aware of any extra levels, so that's cool.

It's never actually been called Orbiter, has it? The PAL version of the Wii game is renamed Orbient. Is it different elsewhere?

silvergunner · Post by **silvergunner** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 9:03 pm

Played a lot DigiDrive,definitly not a bad game.At first,hard to figure out what to do,but there are some interesting Faqs outthere...

http://crackedrabbitgaming.com/guides/g ... drive/faq/
and
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadva ... 3343/44254

if you are able to master the technics its a very addictiv game!

themachinist · Post by **themachinist** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:46 am

themachinist · Post by **themachinist** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:55 am

Well, I don't have a Wii and I don't plan to buy one anytime soon and I'm wanting them for the GBA for the pick up and play portability

.

iatneH wrote:
themachinist wrote:Anyway, now I really want to get some other bit generations games, specifically dialhex, orbital and dotstream. Play-asia is out of them... anyone know where I can find them new?
Dialhex is great! But it looks like you could be stuck with eBay... or GaijinPunch maybe?

Looks like I'll have to settle for getting some used carts somewhere. I'll browse the fs/ft section of different games forums lol

silvergunner wrote:Played a lot DigiDrive,definitly not a bad game.At first,hard to figure out what to do,but there are some interesting Faqs outthere...

http://crackedrabbitgaming.com/guides/g ... drive/faq/
and
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadva ... 3343/44254

if you are able to master the technics its a very addictiv game!

It was actually kind of fun just figuring things out without knowing much about the game initially. Like I didn't know that if you filled up each lane with a meter that super thing happened where you can fill up the meters with each piece, then when you put a different piece into it you get an extra "ambulance". That was pretty trippy the first time I made it happen. I'm totally digging the music and the variety of theme/colors.

What have you guys gotten on Digidrive? I've gotten around 1100m so far (not that it's good or anything).

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 2:37 am

E. Randy Dupre wrote: It's never actually been called Orbiter, has it? The PAL version of the Wii game is renamed Orbient. Is it different elsewhere?

Doh. It's Orbient. I just forgot the name.

Jockel · Post by **Jockel** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:22 am

themachinist wrote:What have you guys gotten on Digidrive? I've gotten around 1100m so far (not that it's good or anything).

A bit more than 30.000m ^^"