Memories of One Last Dream — Sneak Peek of Continue Magazine Vol. 88 (and How to Win a Copy)

The cover of Vol. 88 of Continue Magazine featuring the design classic Dreamcast swirl.

Although the Junkyard is almost an entirely online operation, our editorial collective has always harboured a love for print media. Sure, broadcasting your ramblings to a global audience via the world wide web is neat, but there is also something undoubtedly special about holding a book or magazine in your hands - the texture of the paper, the smell of the ink, the coffee mug rings on the cover and all that jazz. As laid bare in my prior Junkyard posts, and our latest DreamPod episode, I too am afflicted by a borderline unhealthy obsession with Dreamcast magazines. Therefore, when I was trawling eBay looking for old issues to scan and happened to lay eyes on the latest issue of Continue magazine, with its tantalisingly minimalist cover advertising a Dreamcast special feature, I knew I had to get my grubby mitts on a copy.

Of course, as this is a contemporary magazine which is still very much alive and kicking, scanning the entire mag or even the special section is out of the question. However, following a long honoured Junkyard tradition (sometimes titled “Let’s take a look at”), I am able to share my humble thoughts on its contents, along with a few choice snapshots and info on where readers can purchase this product themselves. 

So, here we go. Let’s take a look at Continue Volume 88…

Continue: The Story so Far

Continue, or Continue Motion Graphic to use the full title, is a Japanese magazine that describes itself as “the world's greatest otaku, subculture, and entertainment magazine”. Its first issue was published in March 2001, arriving on newsstands at a time when the Dreamcast was in a peculiar state of limbo - officially discontinued, but with several more years of software releases ahead of it (in Japan, at least). Published by Ohta Publishing Company on a quarterly basis through until the end of 2002, it then picked up pace, publishing bimonthly through until February 2010 when what would appear to be its final issue appeared. 

Top: Three covers from the initial run of Continue (2001-2010).
Bottom: Three covers from the revived run of Continue (2018-Present).
Cover artwork © Continue Motion Graphic.

Fortunately that wasn’t the case. In 2018, Ohta decided to shake Continue out of its lengthy hibernation, spruce it up, and put the magazine back to work, with little change in terms of its scope. Since its revival, the magazine has been published continually on a bimonthly basis, with each issue containing coverage of contemporary and retro gaming (among other 'otaku' topics) over a span of 120 pages or so. 

As someone who has only just come across the mag, my understanding of it, beyond what I’ve been able to glean from internet sources, is admittedly shallow. According to the blurb on RetroMags, right from its early days Continue was characterised by an avoidance of “fluff” previews, in favour of more considered coverage of games and the gaming industry, along with in-depth interviews. And, flicking through Volume 88, that description seems to hold up…

Volume 88: Memories of One Last Dream

The first pages of the special feature with a snap of one fine looking Dreamcast. 
Magazine content © Continue Motion Graphic, 2026.

Front and centre in this issue (or should I say volume?!) is a special 48-page feature on Sega’s swansong console aptly titled “Memories of One Last Dream”. The remainder of the issue has a variety of other neat features too, including a 2025 Game of the Year section, but given our remit, I will exclusively focus on the former item. Broken down into its constituent parts, the Dreamcast feature encompasses:

• Brief reviews of 24 games;
• Two full page panel comic strips (including one where the Dreamcast meets the PS5);
• An interview with Akira Nishino and Takaharu Terada (focused on Sakura Taisen, aka Sakura Wars);
• An interview with Yosuke Okunari (Dreamcast and Sega-wide discussion);
• An interview with Tadashi Takezaki ((Dreamcast and Sega-wide discussion); and
• A reproduction of Sega of Japan's 31 Jan 2001 "To everyone who supports Sega" message addressing the end of the Dreamcast and the shift to third-party software development.

All of the above is laid out beautifully, with the text interspersed between some extremely clean shots of the console and its paraphernalia, some interesting photos of Sakura Wars sketches and concept artwork, and of course, some shots of the interviewees during their in-person interviews (photography by Kazuki Ohashi and Hiroyuki Matsuzaki).

Left: Examples of the brief game reviews. Right: Sketches and concept artwork for Sakura Taisen.
Magazine content © Continue Motion Graphic, 2026.

The 24 games that are selected to be reviewed/highlighted are invariably bangers and would make a decent menu for those new to the console. They include the iconic titles that were big hitters in western markets like Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio, as well as a smattering of more understated delights like Death Crimson 2, Segagaga, and The Typing of the Dead. For incorrigible DC obsessives like us though, these reviews are unlikely to be of much interest. After all, we have probably played the featured titles many times over, and have little desire for our stubbornly held views on them to be challenged (ok, maybe that last part is just me). 

The mag's main hook then, beyond the admittedly gorgeous aesthetics, is its interviews with those who helped make Sega tick during the Dreamcast era. For those of us who don’t comprehend Japanese, an extremely rough inkling of what is said can be ascertained using a translation app of one sort or another. Of course, this method is replete with potential issues, and cannot match the touch of a skilled human translator. We're hopeful that Ohta may permit us to translate and publish one of the three interviews in English, but until then, here is a rough synopsis of each:

Akira Nishino and Takaharu Terada are interviewed about the Sakura Taisen series, whose multiple releases on the Dreamcast were central to the identity of the console in Japan. They have both been employed by Sega since the 90s and took up key roles in the creation of the Sakura Taisen game series. They speak about the creative process; the generosity of other Sega colleagues; brainstorming over late night beers; their desire to ensure Sakura Wars 3 utilised everything the Dreamcast hardware had to offer; and much much more. Perhaps the most poignant moment discussed is when the news arrived that Sakura Wars 4 would be developed as a proper-finale for the Dreamcast, despite the fact that Sega had already ceased production of the console.

Akira Nishino and Takaharu Terada proudly pose with an extensive range of Sakura Taisen/Sakura Wars games released for the Dreamcast, along with the special edition version of the console. 
Magazine content © Continue Motion Graphic, 2026. 

Yosuke Okunari, a Sega employee since 1994 who is renowned for his knowledge of the company, gives a wide ranging interview about the Dreamcast as "one last dream". He speaks about the period between the end of the Saturn and the start of the Dreamcast when hard decisions had to be made about whether games in development should shift to the new consoles; about Sega's self-reflective (self-deprecating?) advertising campaigns of the era; the split between Sega's different development arms (Overworks, Smilebit, Sonic Team); and Phantasy Star Online representing "the dream come true", among many other topics. 

Yosuke Okunari giving it the big 'un in a suave Sega jacket. 
Magazine content © Continue Motion Graphic, 2026.

Tadashi Takezaki, a marketer for Sega between 1993 and 2015, provides insights into a whole host of topics that are regularly mulled over by Sega enthusiasts including: the decision to cease the Saturn (despite it performing well within Japan) in a bid to return Sega to global success; the strategic choices made regarding the Dreamcast's hardware, aesthetics and its launch date; the lack of a "killer app" among Japan's four launch titles; and the prominence of innovative and cutting-edge games in the Dreamcast's library. Perhaps the key detail though, is where Takezaki explains how, once Sega had decided to discontinue the Dreamcast, he arranged for Sega to directly and warmly address its fans in what is referred to as the "To everyone who supports Sega" message, instead of only publishing a matter-of-fact press release.

Snaps of Tadashi Takezaki in mid-flow during his interview.
Magazine content © Continue Motion Graphic, 2026. 

Those seeking to get their hands on Continue Magazine Vol. 88 should visit its dedicated page on the publisher’s platform, which gives numerous options for it to be bought physically or digitally at a price of 1,980 yen (roughly a tenner). 

How to Enter Our Competition

Of course, one lucky reader could also get their hands on a physical copy of the mag by winning our competition. Entrants simply need to email us at dreamcastjunkyard (at) gmail dot com and tell us which of the three interviews featured in Continue Vol. 88 they would most like to see published in English and why (in less than 50 words). They must do so by no later than Sat 28 March, and be located in the UK or Europe only (apologies, delivery costs elsewhere are too high for this rag-tag non-profit outfit). 

Our hope is that Ohta Publishing will give us permission to translate and publish one of the interviews featured in Continue Vol. 88 here on the Junkyard blog. Once we know what readers preferences are we will crack on with pleading for permission.

Segagaga has Finally Been Translated into English — Here's How to Play It (and How it was Achieved!)

The headline you see above is not some form of freaky clickbait, nor is it a two-month-early April Fool’s prank. It is, however, signalling one of the biggest pieces of Sega Dreamcast news that we will probably ever report here on this website. Some thought it would never happen, but the day has finally arrived: Segagaga is now playable in English, thanks to the incredible work of a team of dedicated fans led by Exxistance. If you just want to know how to play the translation, skip to the end of this article, where you will find a link to a download and instructions on how to apply the patch to your existing disc image of Segagaga. But we felt it was important to document what made this holy-grail translation possible — and to ensure that those responsible receive the recognition they deserve. So read on if you want to learn more!

If you’ve spent more than ten minutes in Dreamcast fan circles, you’ll undoubtedly be aware of Segagaga, a 2001 Japan-exclusive RPG that tasks players with running Sega as it tries to regain market share against its main competitor, DOGMA (Sony, basically). Developed by Hitmaker and published by Sega, the game is well known for its wacky humour (much of it at Sega’s own expense) as well as its abundance of references to the company’s past IPs. Because of this, Segagaga has retained an almost mythical quality among Western Dreamcast fans, and from the moment it became clear the game wouldn’t be released outside of Japan, it has without a doubt been the most anticipated English translation of any game in the console’s library.

But as I'm sure you're aware, Segagaga's translation journey has been wrought with roadblocks. Many projects have started up over the years, only to inevitably fizzle out. But as we previously mentioned at the top of our interview with Segagaga’s creator, Tez Okano, the reason for the game’s multiple-decade stint in translation hell wasn’t due to a shortage of skilled translators capable of handling its distinctly Japanese humour, but rather a series of daunting technical hurdles.

The primary challenge stemmed from Segagaga's use of the Dreamcast’s BIOS font, as editing it was thought to be impossible for the longest time. What's more, the game only supported Shift-JIS encoding for text, a common two-byte format for Japanese language that was widely used in video games of the era (and still is today, though typically alongside ASCII or UTF support). Without changing the game to retrieve narrower Latin alphabet characters from the BIOS instead, the original Shift-JIS would leave the in-game text looking horrible, and too big to fit in numerous places.

Demonstration of Shift-JIS encoding, provided by Derek Pascarella.

By contrast, many other Japanese Dreamcast titles rely on their own internal font sheets, unique to each game, meaning that savvy hackers can go in and swap a Japanese font sheet for an English one, adjusting spacing between characters, along with other necessary tweaks. Because of this, these games were able to see successful translations much sooner, and form the majority of past fan translations we've seen for the console over the years. 

After two decades of unsuccessful attempts at translating Segagaga, it was time to bring in the big guns. Cracking a technical nut this tough required a meeting of some of the most talented minds the Dreamcast scene has to offer, including megavolt85, mr.nobody, VincentNL, Derek Pascarella, and madsheep. If it weren’t for them, I can only imagine how much longer it would have taken for us to see this translation become a reality… perhaps another decade?

In steps megavolt85, hacker extraordinaire, who was one of two previously responsible for making it possible for Atomiswave games to be ported to Dreamcast. On megavolt's input, Derek Pascarella explains:

"megavolt85 modified Segagaga to interpret ASCII, the single-byte encoding commonly used for the Latin alphabet. Not only that, but he modified the game to read from the ASCII section of the BIOS font, rather than the Shift-JIS section."

The next step was to make it so that ASCII from the BIOS could be edited. This was where Derek worked his magic, and shares how he made it happen:

"Segagaga speaks directly to the Dreamcast’s BIOS when it comes time to render text on screen. After megavolt85 did all of the assembly hacking to force the game to interpret ASCII-encoded text and then pull from the ASCII section of the BIOS font (rather than Shift-JIS), I started poking around a bit to see how it all worked. What I discovered is that the game actually copies the entirety of the BIOS font into RAM pretty near the location where the game executable ends! So, I disabled the assembly code that performed this copy, then also disabled the code that null’d out that portion of RAM before doing the copy. I then appended the BIOS font to the end of the game executable, and just like that, the font data was precisely where the game expected it to be, and it could be modified! This came in handy a number of times as font glyphs needed tweaking for optimal appearance."

See how much better ASCII looks in comparison:

Demonstration of ASCII encoding, provided by Derek Pascarella.

It appeared that the first-documented Segagaga translation patch project —which began in 2006— did manage to make progress in this regard, but unfortunately wouldn't see an update past 2013. While nothing technical from that previous project would make it into this one, project lead and texture artist Exxistance reveals that he was still able to utilise a wealth of other archived community resources.

"What was helpful [...] were the various artefacts people left on the internet, including the FAQs on GameFAQs that were created back in the mid-00s. Those were especially useful in helping me get my bearings as I initially worked through the game. Other helpful resources included The1Ross’ Open Source Translation Project, as well as various YouTube videos like Korone’s full playthrough of the game."

It was actually on a Dreamcast-Talk forum thread initially created to share The1Ross' project, where Exxistance would post his English-translated edits of Segagaga's textures. From there, mr.nobody —who previously worked on the English fan translation of Dreamcast horror title Seven Mansions— would get in contact with Exxistance.

"mr.nobody was the first person to reach out and help with textures, and he really became the glue that brought all the project players together. When I started, I was mostly just posting texture updates into the void on Dreamcast-Talk. But once mr.nobody reached out to help with textures, the project began to snowball. At first, we coordinated texture work through Google Sheets, but then he created a Discord server that brought the whole team together. One thing I want to highlight is that mr.nobody handled all of the enemy textures, and he brought a wonderful attention to detail to everything he did. For example, the enemy “Influenza” has a “face” drawn on it that is the Japanese onomatopoeia for "coughing," mr.nobody cleverly updated the face to read “flu” in English while still looking like a face. Just brilliant! Additionally, mr.nobody helped with the editing of the videos, like masking off Japanese text and such."

Left: original art for "Influenza".
Right: mr.nobody's excellent "flu" face edit.

VincentNL, known around these parts for his stellar work on the Rent-A-Hero No.1 English fan translation, would provide some vital input to make Exxistance and mr.nobody's texture work... work.

"VincentNL was vital in building the texture container extractors and repackers. Without his work on those tools, all of the texture work would have just been sitting there, waiting for someone to come along and make it usable. His texture tool, “SGGGE,” made replacing a texture with a simple edited .png an absolute breeze."

VincentNL was also the reason you'll be able to play Segagaga's infamous shoot 'em up section with English subtitles. Duralumin, who worked on patches for Nakoruru and Capcom Vs SNK 2, was the one who provided the English translation for this section. This was an important addition to the patch, since the section features an exchange between two major characters that delivers some key backstory. Derek offered some technical insight into VincentNL’s contribution to Segagaga’s shmup section:

“This hack is incredibly clever. Segagaga, like a wealth of other Dreamcast games, leaves behind debug code, including a debug font. This means there are assembly functions at the ready that hackers can call on to render text on screen however and whenever they'd like. VincentNL wrote a tool that allowed the team to enter subtitle text and its timing, and then automatically inject code to display said subtitle text at the right time, all the while leveraging that in-game debugger text rendering routine.”

madsheep, who developed one of the earliest tools to make building SD cards for GDEMU a doddle, was heavily involved in the technical side of the project. Exxistance had the following to say about madsheep’s involvement: 

"madsheep built multiple tools, including the primary main binary translation tool with a nice GUI. This made updating text in the main binary as simple as finding the text, changing it, and clicking “Save,” while the tool automatically relocated the text to the appropriate new area in the main binary and updated pointers as needed. It was actually madsheep’s “MES Tool” that pushed me to jump in and work on the text, since I had already done a fair amount of texture work and wanted to tackle something different. On top of that, madsheep helped solve many smaller issues on the project, including a problem we had with the spacing of magic spell costs."

Once some of the toughest technical hurdles were stomped out, Exxistance and his team could finally focus on translating the game into English. A big name he wanted to shout out here was Sixfortyfive, who handled text editing and shared a lot of in-depth knowledge about the game.

"Sixfortyfive reached out to me on Twitter and mentioned that he had been part of one of the earlier translation efforts, and he volunteered to help with testing. It quickly became obvious, though, that his knowledge of SGGG is vast — he likely understands how the SIM elements of the game work better than any other English-language resource I’ve encountered. Because of that, he also contributed heavily to the text editing, providing a lot of excellent recommendations that helped us further polish the translation."

That’s not to say there weren’t still challenges to overcome on both the translation and technical side. For Exxistance, a few came to mind:

"For me, there were a few challenging areas. First was the Negotiation Q&A portion, where you’re supposed to choose the answer that you think the enemy that you’re negotiating with would say, and many of the questions and answers are humorous and/or esoteric. So translating these in a way that didn’t butcher their original intent but also fit within the physical character limits we had was a tight rope to walk. Plus, there’s over 1,000 combinations of these, so from a sheer time perspective, I think it took me a month and a half to work through them. 

The Random Name Generator was tough to translate because the original combines traditional Japanese surnames with places or things. Translating them into English was easy enough, but then there wasn’t enough physical space for the final combinations (which can only have 17 characters). So these had to be truncated in a way that made sense but also kept a bit of the ridiculousness of the combinations. 

Another challenging aspect was often researching 20-30 year old gaming references and coordinating with the translation reviewers to ensure we got them right. Especially in the archives, there’s a lot of commentary from what I presume is Okano, with many references that predate my jump-in point in gaming. So ensuring that we thoroughly researched a particular reference and translated it correctly was big."

Something important that should be clarified before we move on is that machine translation (specifically a combination of DeepL and ChatGPT 4o/4.5) was used during the initial hacking phase for testing purposes. Once it was time to translate the game proper, multiple human translators then took over. They spent many months crafting the translation you see in the final release. This included researching and pinning down the game’s many references. For more of an in-depth explanation on this from Exxistance, click here.

If you’ve made it this far, the wait is almost over — you’re just about ready to download the English translation patch for Segagaga. The game has built up a legendary reputation among English-speaking fans over the years. Exxistance shares his idea of what you can expect:

"I suspect that many people may think SGGG is like your traditional 20-30 hour JRPG with light simulation elements. It’s really a mish-mash of things, more akin to a visual novel/RPG/simulator, and I actually think that’s what makes it hold up very well today. The game isn’t overly long and it’s meant to be played multiple times. The game also sprinkles mini-games throughout so that you’re never just doing the same thing the whole time. And it included forward-thinking elements like skipping random battles, a feature I don’t think we really saw in many games until the past decade. 

I think people can expect a very humorous, light-hearted RPG that shines as a love letter to SEGA, otaku culture, and the game development profession."

So, the time has finally come to play the English translation of Segagaga! Here's what you need to do:

1. Go to the translation project’s GitHub page and download the patch.
2. Follow the relevant patching instructions in the ReadMe to patch your existing Segagaga disc image (.GDI or .CDI).
3. Once complete, you can load your patched .GDI onto a Dreamcast ODE (such as GDEMU, MODE, etc.) or play it on an emulator. If you patched a .CDI, you can burn it to a CD‑R and pop it into your Dreamcast. If you’re unsure how to burn Dreamcast games, there are plenty of step‑by‑step tutorials on YouTube that will walk you through the process.

We hope you enjoy finally getting to experience one of the Sega Dreamcast’s most legendary Japanese games in English! If this is your first time playing Segagaga, let us know in the comments what you think of it! 

Watch this awesome trailer from our pals at Sega Saturn, SHIRO! for +100 hype!

Tokyo Xtreme Racer - Dreamcast vs PlayStation 5

Tokyo Xtreme Racer (or Tokyo Highway Challenge as most European players would remember) returned in 2025 for the PC, which we covered extensively in Episode 142 of The Dreamcast Junkyard DreamPod.

On the 25th February 2026, the game was released on PlayStation 5 and it felt like a great opportunity for me to rejoin the Shuto Expressway in Tokyo for a quick comparison.

If you’re familiar with the Dreamcast game, then part of the course you race on in the modern remake will feel instantly familiar; the Tokyo C1 Loop. As it’s all based on the real expressway in Japan, the route is identical in both versions.

As one of the nicest looking Dreamcast racing games in the launch window, it’s interesting to look back and compare it to what modern hardware can achieve.

I’d been playing the Dreamcast original pretty extensively over the past few weeks for a separate Dreamcast-related project (of which you’ll hear more about in the coming months), so it immediately felt like home when I booted up the latest incarnation on the PS5.

I made a video of the entire C1 loop, switching between Dreamcast and PS5 gameplay; mixed with the soothing beats from our very own Pizza Hotline. Take a look below:

Personally, I had a lot of love for Tokyo Xtreme Racer and its grindy nature; I’m still convinced it is one of the more underrated hidden gems in the Dreamcast’s pretty vast racing library. The 2025 game is giving me all the same vibes and with over 400 unique rivals to take on, I am strapping myself in for a long night-time ride.

What are your thoughts on the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series? Did you play the original? Are you planning on playing the newest installment? Let us know below, on socials or join us on Discord!

This Peter Moore interview from E3 2000 features some intriguing background details

As I was trawling YouTube t'other day, an interesting video appeared on my feed. Amongst the usual walkthroughs on how to check motorcycle valve clearances and (totally warranted) rants about the rising price of PC hardware, an intriguing compilation of interviews from E3 popped up. Titled simply 'E3 2000 Los Angeles,' the video is a collection of interviews and rushes shot at the Electronic Entertainment Expo which took place between the 11th and 13th May 2000 at the Los Angeles Convention Centre. The video was uploaded by a channel named The RAW Footage, which seems to publish unedited 'behind the scenes' clips from a range of media events, conventions, movie promotions and the like.

Where the magic happened. Image credit: SEGA Retro 

The thing that makes this video particularly interesting to me, apart from it being shot at E3 in the early, hope-filled days of the Dreamcast's natural lifespan, is a segment which begins at 20:25 and features an interview with Sega of America head honcho (and one-time DreamPod special guest) Peter Moore. The video doesn't say which outlet conducted the interview, and there is no watermark or any other identifying information - as the name of the channel suggests, this really is raw footage. In the segment, which you can view below, Peter talks candidly about the threat of the PlayStation 2 and the importance of online gaming to Sega's strategy for the Dreamcast in the face of such stiff competition from Sony's impending juggernaut. What really caught my attention though, is the big screen visible over Peter's right shoulder.

Throughout the interview, Dreamcast game footage plays out and anyone on the show floor who took the time to glance up at the gigantic display would have no doubt been mesmerised by the awesome lineup of titles being beamed into their retinas. Seaman, Space Channel 5, Deer Avenger, Half-Life, SWAT3, Game Room...hold up! Yes you read that right - this promo video shows footage of Dreamcast games that never actually released, yet they were being shown at E3 to try to garner interest in the system. 

Now, some of these games we have featured here at the Junkyard over the years, and some of them have actually been dumped online since those halcyon days: Dreamcast Half-Life is freely available online at this point; Deer Avenger gained some notoriety several years ago when a disc containing the game was discovered in a box in a basement and it eventually ended up in the hands of our good friend Adam Koralik; and SWAT 3 was announced for Dreamcast and subsequently cancelled (and as far as I know, a playable build has never seen the light of day). 

The one game shown on that screen presents the biggest question mark, is Game Room. In development by Sierra Sports (a subsidiary of Sierra Entertainment) it was intended to be a compendium of online-compatible mini games, with pool, darts and pinball featured, similar to the PAL exclusive microphone-bundled Planet Ring. 

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 there. Nice.

From what I can tell, Game Room was actually released on PC and utilised the Maximum Pool engine, but the Dreamcast port was cancelled along with the majority of the other Sierra properties that were announced. Like SWAT 3, whatever actually exists of Game Room for Dreamcast has never been leaked online, and there's very little information about how far along the game was before it was hoofed spectacularly into the gaping maw of gaming anti-history. Here's a better look at the footage shown in the background of uncle Peter's interview segment:

It's pretty clear that Sierra Entertainment had big plans for the Dreamcast, and had a number of titles in development before they ditched support for the platform. There are numerous games, including Game Room listed in this press release from around the exact time of E3 2000, and they did actually release two titles for the Dreamcast in Maximum Pool and Hoyle Casino. Indeed, the back cover of the Hoyle Casino manual even features a full page promo for Game Room, so you'd be forgiven for thinking its release was pretty much nailed on before the proverbial plug was pulled.

The back page of the Hoyle Casino NTSC-U manual.

As an aside, after Peter Moore's section there follows an interview on the E3 show floor with John Golden, former Director of Product Marketing at Sega of America, during which he waxes lyrical about the majesty of Samba de Amigo and the Dreamcast maraca controllers. The man clearly has exquisite taste (as well as an absolutely ballin' moustache, specs and tie combo), and the segment is well worth a modicum of your attention.

John was only 19 when this photo was taken. True story.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this rather fascinating and whimsical glimpse into the past. This video literally popped up on my feed by pure chance, so if you ever needed proof that we live in a simulation, this is it. Probably. Anyway, if you know anything about Game Room, or indeed what became of it (information on the Dreamcast port - as mentioned ad nauseum - is very hard to find), please do pipe up in the comments!

Special thanks to Lewix Cox for his help in digging up some of the sources in this article.

Project Justice's Japanese-Exclusive Board Game Mode Has Been Translated into English

Despite Capcom's Project Justice: Rival Schools 2 being one of the pricier Sega Dreamcast games, that hasn’t stopped fans from finding other ways to experience its 3D brawling action. These days, it can be enjoyed for a far more reasonable price by picking up Capcom Fighting Collection 2. For those who want to keep it strictly Dreamcast, the much cheaper Japanese version (known as Moero! Justice Gakuen) is an option.

Players who did pick up that Japanese release for their Dreamcasts will have encountered an exclusive “board game” mode that was stripped from Western versions, likely due to the extensive work it would have required to localise. This mode lets players create their own character and explore a giant game board, occasionally getting into bouts determined by their character's stats.

Recently, a fan translator known as Billy Monks announced he was working on translating this unique mode into English, and has released the first version of his patch today. Some text and textures are still to be worked on, but he says the mode has been translated to a state that is easy enough to play through for those who want to finally give it a try. Of course, this is the only part of the game Billy has translated into English, but if you want to play any of the other modes, you can simply switch to the US or PAL version.

To play this translation, simply head to the project's GitHub page, download the patch, and use Derek Pascarella's Universal Dreamcast Patcher to apply it to your existing Japanese disc image of Project Justice.

The Final Days of Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK) and What Happened to Issue 22

As I bid 2025 farewell to the tune of the traditional New Year's Eve song Auld Lang Syne, I contemplated the lyrics and their theme about leaving things in the past. I promptly disregarded that message and continued to write for a blog about a console that was discontinued 24 years ago. 

But that idea of "farewells" sparked an idea — one that taps into a new collecting obsession I fell into in 2025. You see, I developed a bit of a bug for tracking down old Dreamcast magazines, specifically ones that were published in the UK. Although I was able to frequently play the Sega Dreamcast during its commercial heyday round a friend's house, I was probably too young for the magazines of the time to cross my radar, and even if they had, I probably would've been too busy reading the Beano and Dandy to care.

Anyhow, last year I managed to pick up several bundles of assorted issues of Official Dreamcast Magazine, Dreamcast Magazine (the unofficial one), and DC-UK. I quickly noticed a common thread with these lots, however. While I did manage to acquire some earlier issues in them, the majority consisted of each magazine's final entries. It seemed that the sellers were particularly keen to offload these last issues — and upon reading them, it was easy to see why.

As the death knell rang for the Dreamcast, there was a clear scramble from these magazines to reassure their readers that the console still had plenty of epic games on the horizon. As the issues wore on, however, the cracks began to show. The number of games reviewed in each issue dwindled, features became steadily less inspired, and page counts shrank. In the most egregious cases, past reviews were simply reprinted in a desperate attempt to pad out pages.

Of course, this strange editorial limbo couldn't last forever, and eventually each of these magazines would come to accept that the Dreamcast’s fate was a doomed one, and sail off into the sunset — most of them rather unceremoniously. Next issues were promised, but never came. Only one publication, Paragon Publishing's unofficial Dreamcast Magazine, managed to last long enough to earn itself the privilege of a proper send-off.

In what I hope to be an ongoing series, I will be taking a look at how each of the UK's Dreamcast magazines said their farewells —or didn’t— with an additional goal of uncovering what went wrong behind the scenes for those that ended prematurely. You know we love solving a mystery here at the Junkyard.

To start off, I'll be taking a look at Dennis Publishing's officially licensed offering, Official Dreamcast Magazine. Its final issue, issue 21, was released in June 2001.

My scan!

The issue hit newsstands sporting a rather fitting PAL-blue cover featuring Sega’s iconic spiky mascot. Like the rest of the magazine, the cover is clean as hell — and perfectly timed to coincide with the mag’s review of Sonic Adventure 2. Readers would have also found Volume 22 of the Dream On demo disc adorning this issue's cover, which was responsible for its premium £4.99 price tag.

Depending on where you were in your Dreamcast journey, this demo disc may have proved to be either a blessing, or slightly disappointing. Rather than including playable previews of the latest upcoming titles, the 22nd instalment of Dream On served as a "best-of" compilation, packing in demos for nine Dreamcast bangers. These included Jet Set Radio, Metropolis Street Racer, Sonic Adventure, Virtua Tennis, Space Channel 5, Toy Commander, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, Ready 2 Rumble, and Ultimate Fighting Championship. Seeing as all nine of these games were voted into our Top 200 Dreamcast games list, with the majority of them ranking inside the top 30, it was a well-curated selection, and perhaps well-timed for any new Dreamcast adopters who had picked up the console following its price drop to £99.99 earlier that year. If you were a long-time ODM reader, though, you may well have played a fair few of these titles already thanks to the magazine’s high review scores, and were perhaps instead expecting demos for the brand-new Sonic Adventure 2 or Crazy Taxi 2. If that were the case, you might have been left feeling a bit miffed.

Credit: Chromagi

The magazine's editor, Warren Chrismas, made the reasoning for this demo selection clear in his note at the front of the issue. While he began by calling out the "gloom merchants" for insisting the Dreamcast was dead and buried months before —citing the high quality of both Sonic Adventure 2 and Crazy Taxi 2 as a reason for fans of the console to remain excited— this positive tone was soon contradicted by the sobering reality of Sega's situation.

You can play Virtua Tennis online?!

We are not even at the end of January 2026, and we have already seen two online Dreamcast games resurrected for enjoyment via DreamPi. First we had Hundred Swords on New Year’s Day, and then as of the other day, Sega’s Power Smash Tennis is back online.

Those of us in the West will be more familiar with Virtua Tennis than the Japan-released Power Smash, but rest assured they are the same game, just released under two different titles. Chances are though, you probably didn’t realise there was actually an online multiplayer mode in Virtua Tennis; but you won’t be alone as it was exclusively available in the Japanese version.

Incidentally, Virtua Tennis is a rare example of a game in that era coming out in the West before Japan, with the Japanese release arriving a full four months later. Presumably this was because an online mode was being added to the game.

Having updated my DreamPi to the latest version 2.0, I couldn’t wait to try out Power Smash online. As luck would have it, the DreamcasticChannel was planning a livestream for the community that very same day, so I knew there would be a few players online. 

Navigating the Japanese menus can be daunting at first, but once you remember it is 2026 and we have Google Translate in our pocket, getting connected, setting up your username and waiting in the lobby for other players to arrive is an absolute breeze.

Around eight of us were online and we spent the evening chatting in the lobby, playing each other over and over again, and it certainly seemed like nobody could get enough of the tennis action. 

Amazingly, there is hardly any lag to speak of and the game runs as smooth as silk. Most of us will be familiar with Virtua Tennis' gameplay and I’m delighted to say that it feels identical when you play Power Smash online. 

Once you’re in the lobby, challenging other players can be done with a few clicks of the A button, and once they accept, you’re almost immediately into a match. You select your preferred player, court type and match options beforehand (which are stored server side), so there’s no messing about when you get into a game. 

Matches tend to last between four and eight minutes each which makes it perfect for an online gaming night on Dreamcast, especially if there are a few players online. 

Each player has their win/loss statistics saved on the server, and the team at Dreamcast Live have set up a leaderboard page on the website so you can see who’s in the running to become the next Wimbledon champion. 

It was one of the most enjoyable evenings I’ve had playing Dreamcast online and I have no doubt that Power Smash will quickly become a community favourite, with regular online matches being scheduled. It’s certainly become one of my favourite games to play online because of how much action there is, how smooth the game plays, and how little waiting around there is. 

If you’d like you find out more about how to get your Dreamcast setup for online gaming, be sure to check out the excellent connection guides over at Dreamcast Live.

See you on the court soon!

20 Years of The Dreamcast Junkyard — New Merch!

We thought we'd give you a couple weeks break from beating you over the head with the news of the Junkyard website's 20th anniversary milestone. Well, enough time has passed, so it's time to formally announce that we have collaborated with some incredible artists to bring you four new t-shirt designs.

As mentioned during our previous merch drop back in 2024, 100% of the profits made by us from the sale of merch items will go exclusively towards assisting with website and podcast hosting, with any excess going towards funding further website-related projects. Let's check out the designs!

Design 1: "Web 2K5" by Animated AF! (aka Aaron Foster)

The first of four exclusive merch designs created to celebrate The Junkyard's 20th anniversary on the web. This one was illustrated by OG Dreamcast Junkyard contributor Aaron Foster, aka Animated AF, and pays tribute to the earliest layout of the site, referencing the original banner design, the first post that founder Tom made, and more. You will also have seen part of Aaron's design adorning our current header.

Design 2: "JunkyardGaGa" by Tetsu "Tez" Okano

We’re honoured to reveal that Segagaga creator Tetsu “Tez” Okano illustrated this design, which features two familiar characters sat atop a giant junked console. How did I manage to wrangle Mr. Okano to design a t-shirt for us? Well, I proof-read some English promotional copy for his newest game "THE GIRL FROM GUNMA Kai", and he offered to illustrate something for us in return. Nice guy.

This design is also available as a sticker.

Design 3: "20 Years Logo" by From Ashes to Fire (aka Kopke)

Returning once again is From Ashes to Fire (aka Kopke), who is providing a 20 year anniversary rendition of the Dreamcast Junkyard logo he created for us back in 2024. It's sleek. It's Powerful. And you've probably seen it already doing the rounds on our socials and the website itself.

This design is also available on hats and stickers.

Design 4: "Junk Grind Radio" by Uncle Clutch

The fourth and final exclusive merch design, our friend and illustrator Uncle Clutch is taking it to the streets of Tokyo-To with this absolutely killer JSR tribute logo.

This design is also available as a sticker. Be careful with where you stick it though. Remember: Sticker is art. However, sticker as an act of vandalism is a crime.

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We hope you enjoy these four exclusive DCJY 20th anniversary designs. If you are interested in picking something up for yourself, follow this link to our merch store.

New Dreamcast Fan Translations: Macross M3 and Hello Kitty Games Now Playable in English

A few new English fan translations of Japanese Sega Dreamcast games slid across my desk over the Christmas/New Year period. I acknowledged them, nodded my head. “That’s cool,” I thought, then went back to tucking into leftover turkey sandwiches and tubs of Celebrations (I swear they've made those tubs smaller, the cheap bastards). Now I'm nicely rested up, let's take a look at them.

Macross M3

First up, we had a patch for Macross M3 drop on Christmas Eve from NetsuiAya. I know little about Macross, really, but I do know that the fans are very passionate. The beauty of fan communities like Macross's, is that in their efforts to consume every piece of media associated with it, they’ll work their arses off to bring translation projects like this one to life — even if they don’t necessarily have much interest in the Dreamcast to begin with.

Developed by Shoeisha, Macross M3 is a flight/mech combat game that has players assume the roles of various pilots from across the franchise's vast timeline, gunning down enemies across eight different episodes. All of this is interspersed with plenty of character dialogue, which is the main reason why you'll be wanting to get NetsuiAya's patch, as the flying sections are completely playable without having to know Japanese.

Anyway, if you want to give this translation a go, you can download the patch here. Use the Universal Dreamcast Patcher tool to apply it to an existing disc image of the game. There is also a "colour accuracy mod" available for the true Macross heads, which swaps the colours of two of the mechs that for some reason were incorrect in the original release.

A Trio of Hello Kitty games

If you’re a raging fan of Japan’s favourite mouthless feline, then you’re in luck: not one, not two, but three Hello Kitty Dreamcast games are now playable in English. All three were developed by Sega themselves, and while they may be basic puzzlers, they're bloody charming. They are Lovely Fruit Park, Magical Block, and Waku Waku Cookies. Thanks to blashy101 for the translations.

Lovely Fruit Park is an adaptation of Colony, a puzzle game created by Midnight Synergy, that was later reskinned for older audiences into Get!! Colonies. Magical Block draws inspiration from the arcade classic Pengo, and sees Hello Kitty flinging blocks at ghosts. Finally, Waku Waku Cookies doesn't seem to be based on any specific puzzle game, but focuses on Hello Kitty stacking up and matching cookies.

She ain't afraid of no ghost.

To grab these translations, just head to their respective repositories (Lovely Fruit Park, Magical Block, Waku Waku Cookies) and follow the instructions to patch each one. There is an issue with playing Magical Block on real hardware using the current main download, so look for Derek Pascarella's fix in the issues section.

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What a lovely way to shake off those January blues. Thanks go out to our pal Derek for making us aware of all of these translations. Credit to CDRomance for all the screenshots.