Good Dreamcastic Morning Episode 2

YouTuber and Dreamcast fan Pcwzrd13 has released the second episode of Good Dreamcastic Morning, the world's only Dreamcast-centric morning show! This new episode has plenty of content and is a good deal longer than the pilot, and segments include a guest spot from Adam Koralik, a look at the Dreamcast unveiling in the August 1998 issue of GamePro, and a brief glance at the unreleased game reveals from this very blog. Also, if you're interested in reading more about the mentioned Jet Grind Radio/Milwaukee incident, be sure to check this article out. As always, please feel free to visit and subscribe to Dreamcastic Channel for regular updates and gaming content.


On the subject of the unreleased games mentioned in the episode, Take The Bullet will be coming very soon. Intrigued? You should be...

The Ultimate Collectors Guide Book

You asked for it, so here it is. The Dreamcast Junkyard Ultimate Collectors Guide is now available in an updated, physical form. Written by Mike Phelan and with a foreword conjured from my own pen (well, keyboard), this guide is packed to the gills with information on pretty much every single game ever released for our favourite system. You don't need to take my word for it though - check out the video preview below:


Renegade Racers Revealed

Developed by Promethean Designs (of Picassio fame), Renegade Racers looked set for a February 2000 release at the hand of almost-defunct outfit Interplay. A kart racer in the same vein as Crash Team Racing or Speed Freaks, but with overtones of Diddy Kong Racing (hovercraft are heavily featured), Renegade Racers was quietly pulled from Dreamcast release lists and the low review scores of the PlayStation game quite possibly had a hand in that. There is precious little information available online regarding the long lost Dreamcast port of this fairly generic racer, but The Dreamcast Junkyard is on hand to fill in the gaps with the following video. Enjoy...

Dreamcast Express Extra

A few months ago I managed to acquire an almost complete set of Dreamcast Express demo discs. You can read all about those here, but if you can't be bothered to click that link and you're wondering what the hell Dreamcast Express is, let me explain. Dreamcast Express was the name given to an exclusive set of demo and preview discs sent by mail to subscribers of Sega's Dreamcast Partners initiative. Subscribers were privy to content in the form of playable demos, videos and VMU saves that were stored on the discs and in some cases these playable demos differed drastically to the final product. The most glaring example of this is the Buggy Heat demo featured on Dreamcast Express volume one, in which the controls are completely different and you have the ability to 'free look' like you do in most modern racers. If you lived in Japan at the time of the Dreamcast and had the foresight to subscribe to the Partners service, you would also be treated to a rather brilliant welcome pack, and that can be viewed here, complete with English translation.
Now, at the start of this diatribe, I mentioned that I had an almost complete set of Dreamcast Express. That's because apart from the regular volumes (numbered 1 to 7), Sega issued another volume simply titled 'Extra.' I came to own this addition to the Dreamcast Express series through the kindness of reader and contributor James - the very same gentleman who recently submitted the Partners welcome pack images. James also sent me (for the price of postage alone) several volumes of the Japanese Dreamcast Magazine's cover disc series and I will be casting my gaze over those in a future post. For now though, let's delve into Dreamcast Express Extra and see what's hiding on the GD and in the booklet...

The Games of Star Wars

Man, I love Star Wars. It's so quotable. Who can forget the immortal line from Sergeant Apone when the space marines emerge from suspended animation aboard the USS Sulaco? It's simply awesome:

"Alright sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm! Every meal's a banquet; every paycheck a fortune; every formation a parade...I love the Corps!"

It just encapsulates everything great about George Lucas's epic space drama. I wasn't that keen when they detached the Enterprises's saucer section from the star drive - those effects were a bit ropey - but when it turns out that the Event Horizon actually went to Hell itself...well, I was simply blown away. Vaporised, even. But then I found the microfilm so it all turned out well in the end.
Sgt. Apone started as a lowly Storm Trooper, too.
If you're still still reading, well done. If you're already looking for the comments section, then you've already lost, my friend. Joking aside, the entire world (well, those sectors with internet access) seems to be gripped with Star Wars fever at the moment, and who can blame them/us/me? The trailer for the next instalment of the Star Wars saga looks positively stunning, and I for one cannot wait to see what Mr Abrams does with the series George Lucas managed to drag backwards through a hedge over the course of two and half terrible prequels.

Colin McRae Rally 2.0 Revealed

Colin McRae Rally 2.0 for Dreamcast is a game that vanished from release schedules faster than Lord Lucan disappeared after his children's nanny was bludgeoned to death. As a massive fan of driving games, and rally games in particular, when it was canned I really did feel dejected. The PlayStation Colin McRae games are still some of my favourites in the genre (we don't talk about DiRT: Showdown) and the thought of being able to enjoy a graphically superior port with added gameplay modes excited me no end.
Alas, Codemasters decided that work on the game would be cancelled and with that the dream of a proper rally simulation on the Dreamcast died. Widely thought to be a 'lost' Dreamcast game, Colin McRae Rally 2.0 for Dreamcast has been the stuff of forum rumours ever since, but I am thrilled to announce I have had the pleasure of sampling the game...and I took footage to prove it. It's in no way complete (around 30%) and there's not a lot to it - just one track and some options (plus it requires a specific VMU to run) - but it is playable and apart from some slowdown is every bit as good as you would expect.

Developer Interview: Alice Dreams Tournament

Alice Dreams Tournament hit its Kickstarter goal in little more than a day, and it isn't really a surprise. This homage to local multi-player games of yesteryear has outstanding 2D visuals, a multitude of inventive game modes and a brand new use for the humble VMU. The Dreamcast Junkyard backed the project almost immediately and we look forward to being able to play (and review) Alice Dreams Tournament when it launches. In the meantime however, we caught up with lead programmer Julien Desquenne to ask a few questions about the history of the game, the Bomberman series and (naturally) if he knows the identity of the legendary Dreamcast barber...
The likeness is uncanny!
DCJY: Could you tell us a little bit about who makes up the Alice Dreams Tournament team and how you got together? 

Julien Desquenne: Our team consists of Nicolas Pochet the graphic designer and me, Julien Desquenne the programmer.  We met in 2003. In fact, I began to program a platform game and I was looking for a graphic designer to help me on the graphic parts. I really wanted to realize this game on Dreamcast. So I posted my research of a graphist on a Dreamcast French forum (dcreload.fr) and Nicolas replied very quickly and introduced me to his drawings. I was very impressed by his artistic talent and we decided to work on a common project.

Dreamcast Partners Club Welcome Pack (With English Translation)

The Dreamcast Partners Club was a Japan-only membership club that Sega offered to subscribers, and gave Dreamcast owners access to exclusive content. This content was mainly delivered in the form of the Dreamcast Express demo discs, but also allowed members to collect Dream Point Bank credits that could be exchanged for swirl-branded trinkets, peripherals and the teeth of long-dead warrior kings. Here in Europe, we never got the option to join the Partners Club (and neither did US gamers), so it remains something of an unknown chapter in Dreamcast folklore to many.
This bank is more trustworthy than most.

Thanks to a reader called James though, we can now show you what you would have received in the post as a welcome to the Dreamcast Partners Club had you taken the plunge and signed up. It's mainly the usual stuff you'd expect - membership cards and welcome letters and the like, but there's also a copy of that bizarre Yukawa puzzle game and an intriguing VHS tape. James has promised to get the tape digitised and uploaded to YouTube asap so that we can share it here, but in the meantime cast your peepers over the rest of this intriguing letterbox spam Dreamcast paraphernalia...

Review: Fruit'Y

We recently reported that a new puzzler, Fruit'Y had been released for the Dreamcast and that it was available as a fully boxed game with a nice printed disc. The fact that it retails at €2.99 meant that it was an instant purchase for me, and it only took a couple of days to arrive in a nice padded envelope all the way from mainland Europe. After Ghost Blade and Volgarr the Viking, this is the third newly-released game I've had the pleasure of popping into one of my Dreamcasts this year, so let's take a closer look at what the fuss is all about.
Fruit'Y is actually a freeware game that is available to download from the Retroguru website, but I decided to visit the Dragon Box shop and buy a physical copy because (as mentioned) it's a new game for less than the price of a Pot Noodle multi-pack. And I'm pretty sure that playing Fruit'Y won't give me extreme constipation followed by a bout of violent, explosive diarrhoea...although this is yet to be confirmed.

The Games That Never Were: Episode 5

We've featured every episode of Pcwzrd13's The Games That Never Were here at the Junkyard, and this weekend saw the release of the long-awaited fifth instalment. The series (as you'd expect from the name) takes a look at Dreamcast games that were teased but never found their way onto the system with a full release.

Episode 5 continues the trend, and investigates some pretty intriguing cancelled games. This time the series casts an eye over such gems as Promethian Designs' Picassio, PC favourite Outcast, Quark from Quantic Dreams, Dee Dee Planet from Dori Dock and Spiral Nightmare from Sega.


Thanks again to Pcwzrd13 for putting this awesome series together and offering us yet another glimpse of some titles that could have made the Dreamcast's library even more impressive than it already is. You can read more about the series (and watch the other episodes) here and here
Be sure to subscribe to Pcwzrd13's YouTube channel if you haven't already!

Play Expo Manchester 2015 Recap

So Play Expo Manchester came and went in something of a blur. It was fantastic to finally attend an event and bring the Dreamcast to the masses of gaming fans who maybe never owned one or are too young to even remember it. Not only that, it was brilliant to be able to speak to people who listen to the DreamPod and who are active members of the many Dreamcast forums, communities and Facebook groups (including our own!) around the web.
The DCJY Team - Tom, Gaz, Rob and Martin
We didn't have a massive presence at Play Expo - as a relatively small concern we were allotted two tables on the periphery of the Re:Play retro gaming section, but we still managed to attract a lot of traffic. We had two CRT TVs, a giant VGA-enabled LCD and a proper VGA monitor. Hooked up to the LCD we had a powerful sound system that really enhanced the experience for those people who got to try out Rez.

Midsummer: Duranik's New Dreamcast Game?

I feel like a bit of a click-baiter writing this because it's not really a story. It's the kind of non-news that tabloids wheel out on a particularly slow day, where the only thing they have to report is a missing cat in a sleepy village somewhere. Or when supermarkets start charging 5p for a carrier bag.
As reported over at Dreamcast News, the next Deamcast game from Sturmwind developer Duranik could well have had its name - or at least a codename - leaked/teased: Midsummer. It's a curious moniker, and doesn't really hint at what type of game it may turn out to be (although that said Sturmwind doesn't make much sense taken on its own, either), indeed the story of how it was discovered is actually more intriguing.

Duranik are also well known for supporting the Atari Lynx (and Sturmwind started life on the Jaguar CD, fact fans) and it transpires that their recent release Alpine Games featured a QR code on the back of the box. Scanning this QR code takes inquisitive users to a website where a bizarre Aztec-style mask smiles menacingly out, while a line of text reads 'follow the line.' The url gives it away though, as you'll see if you follow this link.
And that's it. There really is no more to this story. And that's why I feel like a click-baiter. Coming up next: This Local Woman Makes £450 A Day - Click Here To Find Out How!

Thanks to Pcwzrd13 for the heads up on this.

Get Back Online With DreamPi

Online functionality was one of the the main selling points of the Dreamcast, but in the here and now, playing online-enabled games with Sega's final system is something that is out of reach for many a gamer. There are lots of Dreamcast games that are still playable via the internet and new dedicated servers are popping up all the time, but unless you have a broadband adopter or some other more convoluted means to get your console connected to the internet, offline gaming is your lot.
It seems that a clever guy called Luke Benstead has other ideas though, and has created a rather impressive little Raspberry Pi-based device called DreamPi. What does this creation do? Well, it allows the Dreamcast to connect to the internet using the dial-up modem so you can play games online again. Without a dial-up ISP or a Dreamcast broadband adaptor.

DreamPi is a piece of software I've written combined with a standard set of hardware which allows the SEGA Dreamcast to connect to the internet without a dial-up ISP
- Luke Benstead

New Dreamcast Puzzler Fruit'Y Available Now

It seems like every week we're getting new Dreamcast games these days. We've only just gotten over the sudden arrival of Volgarr The Viking and here we are with yet another new title to get stuck in to. Fruit'Y comes from Retroguru, an indie developer with another Dreamcast puzzler already in their catalogue - Xump. Fruit'Y is a fairly simple-looking game in which you must match the pattern of fruits arranged on a board, and from the release trailer (below) and website looks to be a fairly interesting little game with over 100 levels of increasingly difficult challenges.
The best bit about this new release is that it only costs €2.99/£2.21/$3.36 (plus shipping) and comes on a printed disc in a DVD style case. I've already placed my order so will be giving my thoughts on it when it arrives, but in the meantime here's the release trailer:


It's a really good time to be a Dreamcast owner right now, and it only seems to be getting better. You can grab Fruit'Y here and read more about it at the official Retroguru website.

Source: Dreamcast Today

The Gods Of Olympus

The Olympics. Whether you revel in the excitement of the world’s greatest athletes coming together every four years for a festival of sport; or are already planning a way to escape the non-stop coverage of an overly corporate 2 weeks of men and women hitting balls with sticks or running around in circles, there's no denying that it and gaming have strong ties. Whilst the games have never set the world alight, many a bedroom has been host to a bout of wrist-aching joystick waggling as school friends attempt to show that they are indeed faster over the digital 100m. From Daley Thompson sponsored joystick breakers on the 8-bits, through pad breaking exploits on the Mega Drive and SNES, right through to 90's gaming icons battling it out in strangely mismatched sporting events on the latest Nintendo consoles, the Olympics and Gaming have been bedfellows for some time.
They all bought PS2s at launch. The lamenting went on for years...
The DC didn't escape its own little role in Olympic video gaming, and with Rio 2016 fast approaching, it's time to look back at the trio of Olympics themed games that hit Sega's little box of dreams, and perhaps take time to look at just what the console could deliver when it came to re-creating the Olympic spectacle.