Lost Dreamcast Game Agartha Found...And Released!

Agartha is a game that has always been little more than an enigma. It has, for the best part of two decades, represented one of the most intriguing and mysterious lost games that was destined to come to the Dreamcast. Many thought Agartha was little more than vapourware, the shots shown in magazines of the late 90s and early 2000s regarded as nothing more than a glimpse at some pre-rendered scenes with no playable component. And that's how the legend of Agartha remained...until late 2017 when it was found and a video of playable sequences was posted online by veteran Dreamcast collector and bonafide gaming detective Laurent.C.
Fast forward to January 2018 and we bring you the unbelievable news that not only has Agartha been confirmed as fully playable...but you can now download it and play if for yourself in a Dreamcast! Here's our video on the demo and what you can expect from it if you download and play, along with a whistle-stop history of Agartha:


Before you get too carried away, Agartha was only ever a demo and the small fragments of the game that do exist are little more than a proof of concept. But even still, the fact that after all this time something as incredible as this even exists is staggering. Agartha represents one of the great unsolved mysteries of Dreamcast lore, a game that looked incredible for the time, and could easily have been one of the most ambitious titles on the system. Sadly, Agartha was one of the multiple casualties of the Dreamcast's incredibly short lifespan and developer No Cliché pulled the plug pretty early on.
Happily though, we can now all experience the exclusive E3 2000 demo build of Agartha and we give huge thanks to Laurent.C for his endeavours. Another long lost Dreamcast game has come to the fore, and we can't help but wonder what else will finally come to GD-Rom drives in the near future, long after the curtain fell on development.
Download the Agartha demo here, and remember to give thanks to Laurent.C for his outstanding work - he was also the guy behind the public release of the official Dreamcast Mega Drive emulator that was only intended for internal Sega use. Bravo sir, bravo.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments or joint the conversation in our Facebook group. Also, hit us up on Twitter here.

Update: There is now an ISO file available for those who are lucky enough to own a CF card modded Dreamcast (check out our recent review here). This was created by Jan, the man behind the modded Dreamcast. Download the file here and the desktop icon for DreamShell here.

17 comments:

Blondejon said...

One wonders if enough code remains of the game engine for it yo be used in new projects, or could the game itself ever be taken from demo to finished product. Thank you for yet another great article.

hoogafanter said...

I can confirm this runs fairly well on NullDC. Is there anything to do in the game besides run around and explore? I'm having trouble finding things to actually interact with...

Deef said...

I think you could also have thanked dreamcast-news since the download link you shared for the archive is theirs..

Tom Charnock said...

Um, no - had direct contact with Laurent.C all week. Nothing to do with Dreamcast-News. Also, the link was sent direct to me.

FlorreW said...

If i had/was (sry my bad english) financial independence , i would have make sure that this game could be completed today. It looks really really great. Even if you only are able to explore a small area it still seems to have an spectacular athomsphare.

Kev Mason said...

If you type dreamcast news into google it isnt even on the first five pages of hits.

Deef said...

Guys it is not a competition here...DCJY is a great site with detailed and interesting articles that i visit regularly, not to say daily.
I also appreciate Dreamcast-news that is updated also regularly and shares some interesting news that sometimes are not given here.
My remark here is just to point out that the archive file in the shared link contains a readme file with a clear advertising text to dreamcast-news, so i think they should be credited. Do i have this right ?
I don't know in which state of mind you are guys...quite disappointing frankly..

This reminds me your messages regarding henshin coming to dreamcast, and how you have denigrated the dev team...while at the same time you did a podcast for elysian shadows with this arrogant Falco Girgis who clearly makes fun of people (to be polite..)...

Kev when i search dreamcast news into google, it appears in second postion just after dctalk, what are you trying to prove ?

sorry for the possible english mistakes, this is not my native language

Tom Charnock said...

Segamax. There is no animosity. You came here making accusations which I was surprised by because we’ve previously talked online and in these comments with no issue. The truth is - and sorry if this gets anybody in trouble - that I had the demo from Comby last week and the link he sent me he sent via Facebook messages. I can categorically state that I wrote this article on the 11th January but only published it when Comby gave me permission on the 15th. There’s nothing else to it. The download I have didn’t have a Read Me file in it at the time I grabbed it - it was just the Cdi. If Comby told me to credit DC News then I would have. This is getting a little ridiculous. I have tried to speak to Zouzzz to explain (I’ve seen the comments on your forum, btw) but he hasn’t replied. This is basically a case of two people putting stuff online at roughly the same time, there’s no conspiracy and no animosity.

Deef said...

Oh thanks for clarifying this makes more sense now (you may admit that seeing a dcnews reference in a file you shared have brought this confusion :) ). Topic closed.
N.B: This is not "my forum", i'm neither admin nor a staff member at dcnews :)

Tom Charnock said...

Either way, I've added a link to Dreamcast News. I'm not getting into internet drama over nothing - life's too short and the community is too small. We should be helping each other not bickering!

hoogafanter said...

I can relate. One time I saw it was raining and turned on the news and some pompous guy was reporting on the weather without crediting me as a source! How dare these people...

Deef said...

How stupid your comparison is, it doesn't deserve to be commented...

Tom Charnock said...

Guys, no need to argue. I’ve spoken to Zouzzz now. It’s cool. All good in the hood. Sweet as a...erm. You get the idea...!

JPG said...

Amazing stuff! Brilliant start to 2018 and I was really looking forward to this game before it was cancelled. Another bearded hero for Dreamcast and another snow filled atmospheric landscape to run around :)

hoogafanter said...

I was just joking lol sorry to offend...

David said...

This was one of my most anticipated games after reading an article in the Official Dreamcast Magazine - I still read them occasionally. I was bummed when it was cancelled. Thank you for the heads up and it is great to see what could have been!

Unknown said...

hii can you help me run this game on NullDC because i really want to play this and i can't figure out how to set up nulldc