Show Report: Nottingham Video Games Expo 2026

Back in 2022, The Dreamcast Junkyard travelled to the fair city of Nottingham to take part in Nottingham Video Games Expo '22. Nary four years later we were back to our old shenanigans, once again gracing Robin Hood's stomping ground with our collective odious presence. That's because on Saturday 18th July 2026, NottsVGE returned with gusto, in a plush new city centre venue to welcome hoards of rabid enjoyers of electronic games to the hallowed event space hidden within the bowels of the (actually pretty nice) Crowne Plaza hotel.

Armed with a plethora of slightly dodgy display screens (some of which were salvaged from charity shops), and an overflowing Lidl carrier bag of Dreamcast consoles, we trudged through the back alleys of Nottinghamshire to set up our encampment in a small corner of the event space. The scene was set, the hangovers were negligible and the monitor connection issues were overcome by the crack team of weary Dreamcast apologists which staff this very blog. Eventually, the doors were flung open at 10:00 and we greeted our expectant audience.

Early drama during the setting up process, as Lewis and Brian discuss whether Jaz should be allowed to run another Spirit of Speed 1937 competition.

Multi-player Mario Kart 64 running on a Dreamcast seemed to go down well. 

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 was a particular crowd favourite while I played Suzuki Alstare. Um.

To be fair, there were probably far too many of us manning the 12 foot table as myself (Tom), Lewis, Andrew, Lozz, Brian, Kev, Jaz and Harvey (aka Pizza Hotline and composer of our podcast's epic outro tune) were on hand to bellow uncontrollably at anyone who dared come near our stand. But by the grace of Zeus we were there to spread the Gospel of Dreamcast™ to all who would heed our words...and I don't believe anyone was left disappointed.

The event was very popular with those seeking gaming goodies.

One of the talks, this one being an interview with Ocean Software's Gary Bracey.

Sega Bass Fishing was popular with everyone. Because it is class.

Throughout the day we welcomed all and sundry to experience the delights of Under Defeat and Radirgy in proper TATE mode; unreleased Atomiswave gems such as Kenju, Maximum Speed and Faster than Speed; CRT-enabled joy in the form of House of the Dead 2 with light guns; slightly unhinged prancing with Samba De Amigo and maracas; and a whole host of competitions with titles such as Crazy Taxi, Sega Bass Fishing, Power Stone 2, ChuChu Rocket!, and Virtua Tennis 2. 

There was an online-enabled Dreamcast showing off Phantasy Star Online, Quake III: Arena and web browsing functionality through the unbridled power of DreamPi; and we also managed to showcase some of the work of the Dreamcast community, with the excellent ports of GTA III, Mario Kart 64 and Super Monkey Ball all going down a storm.

As you can probably appreciate, many a conversation about the awesomness of Dreamcast was had and many a round of Soulcalibur was lost and won. We even managed to rope gaming royalty like Wil 'Super Play and N64 Magazine' Overton into a doubles tournament on the aforementioned Virtua Tennis 2/Tennis 2K2.

Several generations of Dreamcast enjoyers in one shot.

That is one sexy modded Dreamcast system, I think you'll agree.
Ignore the yellowed controller on the right. Cheers.

Wil Overton is actually pretty good at Virtua Tennis. Who knew?!

Away from The Dreamcast Junkyard's set up, there were numerous traders hawking their glittering warez. YouTuber TootyUK and the ever-present Sore Thumbs Retro Games were selling hardware and software; our good friend Marc Jowett (aka The Gaming Newsagent) had a massive assortment of games magazines and books on sale - I even grabbed a copy of Chris Scullion's excellent Dreamcast Encylopedia for an unbeatable price.

Elsewhere, the Derby Computer Museum had a whole array of classic consoles and computer hardware on display which were fully playable; Arcade Club had a range of classic arcade cabs availiable set to free play mode; Debug and Secret Mode had a pretty massive area showing off a range of brand new indie games (I was quite partial to SUPER 56 from Onion Soup Interactive - think WarioWare, but even more unhinged); and the UK Amstrad Group had an entire room filled with Amstrad games, hardware and slightly musty nostalgia.

I grew up with an Amstrad. Not this one. I had a proper
CPC 464+ though, not a CPC464+ monitor connected to a povo CPC 464. Cough.

Roland Perry (right, obvs) is royalty in the Amstrad scene.

Obligatory Atari Jaguar mention. This one was £300, 
but can you really put a price on being able to play Club Drive on native hardware?

The UK Amstrad Group's area was of particular interest to me, as my very first gaming device was an Amstrad CPC 464+, so speaking to people who are as passionate about the Amstrad platform as I am about the Dreamcast was very, very cool. I even got to meet Roland Perry, the visionary architect behind the whole Amstrad CPC range. Not sure he was too thrilled when I said I wasn't a fan of his eponymous Roland series...but I digress/cringe.

Look at it! It's pure art. The thing in the middle, I mean.

Is this basically Inception?

Back at The Dreamcast Junkyard's area, we welcomed one of the OG members of the editorial team, Aaron 'The Gagaman' Foster, where he was presented with one of the amazing objets d'art created by VGNYsoft - an acrylic sign of his own artwork, a visual representation of the beginnings of this very blog. By all accounts he was very humbled, but that was short-lived as he was press ganged in to a session of Samba de Amigo. On the topic of VGNY though, we also had on display some of the very special, very limited edition Dreamcast Junkyard 20th Anniversary Dreamcast console shells...and they looked (look) absolutely superb, even if I say so myself.

Old favourites like Crazy Taxi still command so much attention.
Note the DCJY console shell on the left, courtesy of VGNY.

ChuChu Rocket! 4-player went down a storm.
We won't talk about the fights that ensued after a Cat Attack.

Soulcalibur on a crisp CRT won't ever not draw a crowd.
The Pokemon toys weren't ours, btw.

I think it's safe to say that NottsVGE 2026 was the biggest and best yet, and full respect goes to Alex (aka The Sega Guru) and his team for putting on yet another stellar event. Personally, my thanks go to the DCJY team for their outstanding efforts throughout the day, and also to the people who came to speak to us, share their love for the Dreamcast and play some quality games. 

Never, ever accept a donut (or a cupcake) from this man.

Had to keep a tight watch on Jaz, lest he sneak off and subject
the entire event to more janky racing games.

Another highlight was that Jaz didn't get to re-run his disgusting Spirit of Speed 1937 competition on a giant screen (see the 2022 event for that blasphemous display of hubris); meanwhile Kev forgot to bring his customary petrol station cupcakes to hand out to unsuspecting event goers. He did go to Wendy's and buy some tiny donuts (most of which he consumed himself while grunting feverishly under a table), but to be honest I think the less said about that, the better.

From left to right: Pizza Hotline, Lozz, Kev, Jaz, Andrew, Brian, Tom, Lewis and Aaron

So there we have it. NottsVGE 2026 was a resounding success, and no doubt we'll be there again in years to come. See you there!

Were you at Nottingham Video Games Expo 2026? Did you encounter any of the reprobates in the image above? Are you mentally scarred? Let us know in the comments!

Monkey Ball is Getting Ported to the Sega Dreamcast — Impressive Footage Shown Off!

Credit: Memorix101

Monkey Ball was one of a number of Sega titles that should've been released for the Dreamcast. Given the game's origins as a Sega NAOMI arcade title, it was a completely natural fit for their home console which shared the same architecture. As we all know though, the Dreamcast's commercial failure would bring its life to an untimely end in 2001 (in theory), and so the game would instead show up in an enhanced form as a launch title for Nintendo's GameCube under the name Super Monkey Ball. The GameCube was cool and all, but us diehard Sega heads knew where the game really belonged...

In 2026, Memorix101 is looking to make what should've been a reality. Using assets from the decompiled GameCube release, they have managed to get the beginner courses (and extra levels) running buttery smooth on Dreamcast, as demonstrated below in this footage from The Sega Guru. Sometimes you just have to pinch yourself, and with all these amazing ports constantly coming to Dreamcast, my arm is beginning to get pretty damn sore.

At the moment, this port isn't available publicly, so fellow dreamers will have to wait a while before they can roll pantsless primate AiAi around in pursuit of his beloved Dole bananas (other brands of banana are available). Memorix101 did provide us with a playable version, and I can confirm that it plays great!

In the meantime, we've gotten word that a beta of the Sonic R port that was in the works from Jnmartin84 has finally been released publicly, so go grab that!

"White Creek" Revealed — New Footage and Info on PixelHeart's Upcoming Indie Dreamcast Survival Horror

We here at The Dreamcast Junkyard team have expressed many times over the years how the Sega Dreamcast indie/homebrew library has been desperately in need of a fully fledged horror title. We've previously enjoyed the Wolfenstein total conversion mod Witching Hour, as well as cool demos like Tunnels, but back in March, publisher PixelHeart/JoshProd announced that they would be bringing a 3D survival horror game to the Dreamcast that would be a "love letter to the classics", even going as far as to feature classic-style fixed camera angles.

Today, PixelHeart has finally revealed more details and even gameplay footage of this previously unnamed survival horror, which we now know will be called "White Creek", and will hit Kickstarter sometime in "the coming weeks", although a definitive date is yet to be confirmed.

So let's run you through all the other details we know. Obviously, please be aware that any gameplay or screenshots shown in this article are not finalised and subject to change, as the game is still a work in progress. 

As mentioned above, some gameplay footage of White Creek was revealed today on JoshProd's social media, and very much looks to take queues from the classic survival horrors of old, like Resident Evil, and particularly Silent Hill (I mean, just look at that sign with the town's map on it). The clip shows the game's protagonist, an exorcist called Alicia Morelli, entering the town of White Creek, gunning down zombie-like foes. The teaser synopsis on the game's Kickstarter preview page explains that Alicia has gone to White Creek to attempt to "contain" an outbreak of violence caused by what seems to be possessed town residents.

The synopsis also seems to imply that players will have a choice to "save [...] souls" or "condemn them". It doesn't elaborate much further than this, but it would be a cool twist to give players an option to save these possession victims rather than just pumping them full of lead. Or maybe there could be some kind of "pacifist" run option, à la Undertale? We will have to wait and see. Anyway, check out the gameplay below. Looking good, huh?

The Dreamcast deserved better in 2001.

In 2025, we're giving it exactly that.

White Creek — a brand new survival horror game.
Work in progress

Wishlist on Kickstarter is LIVE 🕯️#WhiteCreek #Dreamcast #SurvivalHorror pic.twitter.com/2nDUdM5zn8

— Philippe JoshProd (@knifesuisse) June 19, 2026

JoshProd has also informed us that they are working with frequent collaborator Storybird Studio to develop White Creek. Storybird's previous work for Dreamcast includes the underrated Dreamcast indie gem Finding Teddy, along with a number of titles for modern systems, including Finding Teddy 2, Ganryu 2, Guns of Mercy and Golden Force. 

Here's some screenshots of the game JoshProd sent us.

And here's a video of the devs modelling the movement of the game's main character.

We'll be keeping a keen eye on this project, and if you want to too, head over to White Creek's Kickstarter page to set up email reminders and be notified when the campaign launches. As is usually the case with PixelHeart's Kickstarter campaigns, when White Creek's finally goes live, you can fully expect there to be some cool physical editions of the game available in a variety of regional Dreamcast styles.

Unreleased Atomiswave Football title Premier Eleven has been Preserved and Ported to Sega Dreamcast (along with Miracle Stadium!)

Sports games often get short shrift from retro game collectors. Just think about the rows and rows of FIFA and Madden entries lining pre-owned game store shelves, with not even a price sticker of a quid being low enough to convince buyers to leave with them.

On the polar opposite end of that spectrum is Premier Eleven, an unreleased football/soccer game for the Atomiswave — an arcade system that was based on the Sega Dreamcast's architecture. DCJY founder Tom Charnock wrote an excellent article back in 2022 documenting the community's quests to find and preserve it, with the ultimate goal being to port it to Dreamcast, as had been done previously with many other Atomiswave titles. At the time of Tom writing that article, someone had a Premier Eleven prototype board up on eBay for just under 15 grand (USD). Now that's one expensive sports game...

It was very generous of them to skim off those 3 cents.

Well, thankfully for those like Tom who have long lamented the Dreamcast's fairly underwhelming line-up of football games, the owner of a (or perhaps the) Premier Eleven PCB has finally preserved the game online for public consumption, with the help of Dreamcast-Talk forum user "dimps", whose online namesake is a nod to the game's developer. Also, the coincidence isn't lost on us that this long-lost footie title is finally seeing the light of day during the FIFA World Cup season.

If you'd like to play Premier Eleven on your Dreamcast, simply head over to the dedicated Dreamcast-Talk forum thread and download the supplied .GDI file, which can be played via emulators or on real hardware using ODEs such as GDEMU and MODE. The fact that we can finally do so honestly feels like a miracle!

Photo of the original Miracle Stadium Atomiswave cart, supplied by dimps.

Speaking of miracles, the same duo has also preserved another Atomiswave game: a baseball-themed title called Miracle Stadium. This one did actually see a release back in the day, but has remained the last publicly released Atomiswave game to be dumped online. Until now...

Once again, you can find the .GDI for Miracle Stadium on Dreamcast-Talk. dimps says in their post that the game, which was designed for kids, is "more of a curiosity than anything else" and "probably not something you'd ever really sit down and play." Well, I'm about to download it and stick it on my GDEMU, so I'll report back at some point to confirm if it's any good.

Photo of the original Miracle Stadium unit, supplied by dimps.

We doth our hats to the owner of these PCBs and dimps for their preservation efforts! Let us know if you'll be loading up either of these Atomiswave titles on your Dreamcast by leaving us a comment below.

DCJY x VGNYsoft 20th Anniversary Collection — Limited Edition Dreamcast Junkyard VMUs, Console Shells and more!

Did we mention that The Dreamcast Junkyard is 20 years old? Well we didn't stop banging on about it back in December when the anniversary fell. We put out a blog post, a podcast episode, a round of t-shirts, and a whole load of social media spam to celebrate. But we also had something epic brewing in the pipeline, and today we're very excited to reveal it to you.

We have collaborated with our friends at VGNYsoft, the indie publishing arm of Videogamesnewyork, which has published some of the very best Sega Dreamcast indie titles in the United States, to bring you an epic collection of five limited edition items to celebrate The Dreamcast Junkyard's 20 years on the web.

Working alongside the VGNYsoft team for the past nine or so months has been an absolute pleasure, although keeping our lips sealed about such an awesome collaboration has been no easy feat. So without further delay, let's get into it...

DCJY 20th Anniversary VMU Shells and VMU

In 2024, we got our hands on some very cool injection-moulded replacement Visual Memory Unit shells from VGNYsoft. These replacement VMU shells were originally offered through a Kickstarter campaign before becoming more widely available via VGNYsoft's webstore. The idea was simple: remove the knackered, yellowed shell from an existing VMU and swap it out for a fresh one in one of several vibrant colours. Having had the chance to own some of these, I can confidently say the build quality is excellent, and these shells have found a permanent place on some of the VMUs that litter my gaming shelf. 

But yeah, I'm sure you can guess where this is all going. Dreamcast Junkyard VMU shells, baby!

Behold, the Dreamcast Junkyard VMU.

Available from VGNYsoft's webstore will be Dreamcast Junkyard 20th anniversary VMU shells in nine different colours: white, black, smoke, clear, silver, gold, clear orange, clear pink and clear purple. You can see them all below. 

It is very easy to swap a VMU's shell (all you need is a screwdriver and a few minutes), but for those who want to go the whole distance, there will also be new boxed OEM VMUs available fitted with the white 20th anniversary shell (like the one shown above).

A VMU for every occasion.

DCJY 20th Anniversary Console Shell

But those aren't the only shells on offer (we're really giving the girl who sells seashells by the seashore a run for her money.) Also available for the hardware junkies will be this absolutely amazing Dreamcast Junkyard 20th anniversary replacement console shell, manufactured in a transparent clear finish.

I am personally so stoked to get my hands on one of these, as I have a Dreamcast with a blue power LED mod that it'd look incredible on.

The pièce de résistance...

DCJY 20th Anniversary Enamel Pin and Acrylic Keyring

But that's not all. Also available is this lovely enamel pin with the 20th anniversary rendition of our logo, and an acrylic keyring of our regular logo. Put them on your jacket or backpack and make all your friends jealous. Once again, shout out to From Ashes to Fire (aka Kopke) for creating these logos for the Junkyard.

Pray tell, how might one acquire these exquisite treasures?

To get your hands on this merch collection, simply click the link below to head on over to VGNYsoft's special portal for this collaboration, where all items will be made available to pre-order at 12am EDT (that's 5am BST / 9PM PDT) on Monday the 8th of June (note: pre-orders have now gone live). No item will be limited to any specific number, however the window in which you have the chance to purchase them will be limited to a month (with the last day of availability being the 8th of July). We'll see you there.

Click here to view the DCJY x VGNYsoft 20th Anniversary Collection!

Mandatory disclaimer is that we here at The Dreamcast Junkyard will not make any profit from this collaboration. It's also worth mentioning that for everyone ordering from outside of the USA, that up until now, VGNYsoft have only been able to offer domestic shipping on their products, but especially for this collaboration, they will be offering both domestic and international shipping. The team at VGNY has worked hard to keep international shipping costs as low as possible, starting at around $16 for international orders (about £11.91 or €13.76).

Balatro and Friday Night Funkin' are coming to Sega Dreamcast!

Since 2024, there's been a continuous stream of new ports to the Sega Dreamcast. While homebrew ports to the Dreamcast have been happening for decades, it definitely seemed like the appearance of Doom 64 and Grand Theft Auto III on the console firmly opened the floodgates to this current wave we're enjoying. With new releases appearing so frequently, I've come to realise that I'm eventually going to run out of fresh ways to introduce each article. There's only so many ways I can say "the Dreamcast didn't actually die in 2002, here's proof!" So let's just get straight to the good stuff: there's two cult indie hits coming to the 'Cast.

Balatro

Screenshot: Espouaisso

I'm pretty good at unintentionally avoiding the zeitgeist. I mean, I write for a Dreamcast blog, for God's sake (so perhaps it is more intentional than I realise?) But this is why I'm still yet to play the poker-themed phenomenon that is Balatro. It's on every modern platform, so I'm not sure why I've never gotten round to giving it a try. Well, it's now also confirmed to be working on the Dreamcast too, thanks to the work of a dev known as Espouaisso. 

Espouaisso has already managed to get a substantial portion of the game running at a smooth 60 FPS on real hardware, as demonstrated in this video from The Sega Guru. There is still plenty of work to be done, however, including implementing missing features and ironing out a number of graphical glitches.

Work porting Balatro to Dreamcast appears to have started around 16 days ago (at least, this is when Espouaisso first posted about it, anyway), so to see it in the working state it's in already is impressive indeed. If they continue at that same pace, Dreamcast owners may not have to wait much longer before they're able to download and play it for themselves.

Friday Night Funkin'

Screenshot: itsthedis

Friday Night Funkin' is a stylish-as-heck rhythm game heavily influenced by titles such as Dance Dance Revolution and PaRappa the Rapper, which sees players going head-to-head against a range of quirky opponents in sing-offs with the goal of impressing the main character's girlfriend. This is another one I've managed to miss (mainly because I suck at rhythm games), but I've always liked its visual style. I was not surprised whatsoever to learn that Friday Night Funkin' first debuted as a demo on Newgrounds, considering its art direction is very much reminiscent of Flash game classics like Alien Hominid, but with more of a hip-hop flare. 

Due to the game being open-source, it has enjoyed a thriving modding scene over the years, and is also the reason we will soon be seeing a port come to our beloved Dreamcast. The game is currently being recreated in the Raylib engine by developer itsthedis and has already been confirmed to boot and run on real Dreamcast hardware in a playable state. The animations are noticeably blurry at the moment (as shown above), though this is something that itsthedis is working to improve.

If you'd like to try this early build for yourself, head over to the Simulant Discord. A quick search there will lead you to a working CDI image that you can run on your Dreamcast.

***

Are you excited to see Balatro and Friday Night Funkin' come to the Dreamcast? Let us know in the comments below! I personally feel like the console is the perfect home for unique indie titles like these.

The Tragic Fate of DC-UK Magazine and Its Unreleased Issue 21 — Four Lost Reviews Found!

These days, typing "DC-UK" into your search engine of choice will lead you to the UK web stores for an American comic giant, a classic skate shoe brand, or even a company that makes delightful wooden duck sculptures. But for British Dreamcast fans of a certain age, those four letters still spark memories of one of the best unofficial magazines to ever cover Sega's final console. DC-UK was Future Publishing's cheeky, offbeat stab at covering the Dreamcast, and it struck the perfect balance between solid game coverage and creative features, without ever taking itself too seriously.

In 2026, Future stands as one of the few remaining large-scale UK magazine publishers, having gobbled up many of its competitors over the past decade. But back at the turn of the millennium, many more publishing houses were vying for a slice of the magazine market, and for a time, a magazine dedicated to Sega's exciting new Dreamcast console seemed like a fair punt. We previously had the pleasure of chatting about the creation of DC-UK with its first editor, Caspar Field, on our podcast, but today we're fast-forwarding to the end of its run.

How DC-UK introduced itself in its debut issue.

Echoing the fate of the console it was created to celebrate, DC-UK would end not with a bang, but with a whimper. Just like Dennis Publishing's Official Dreamcast Magazine, DC-UK would be killed off seemingly overnight — no final farewell within its pages, and a promised next issue that would never materialise. 

If you, like me, believe a magazine as great as DC-UK deserved a more dignified send off, then read on, because I've found out why it didn't get one. I even spoke with three former members of the DC-UK editorial team, whose insights help shed light on the circumstances behind the mag's untimely end. And, as you may have noticed from the title of this article, I've also managed to recover and preserve four unreleased reviews that were originally intended to appear in DC-UK's cancelled issue 21... Pretty exciting, right? It only took 25 years for them to see the light of day!

But before we get into all that, let's first see how DC-UK bowed out. The magazine's final issue, issue 20, hit shelves on the 15th of February 2001...

All scans in this article were sourced from Sega Retro.

The front cover of what would turn out to be DC-UK’s final issue would certainly look good, but the game featured so prominently was an unremarkable one: Fighting Vipers 2, the often-forgotten sequel to a Sega Saturn fighting staple. Considering the online multiplayer-RPG phenomenon that was Phantasy Star Online was also getting a review inside, you'd think that might have gotten pride of place over fiery helmet guy (or whatever he's called) from Fighting Vipers, but it was instead demoted to a secondary coverline just below it. With Official Dreamcast Magazine running a big PSO cover that same month (issue 17) and promoting its own review as "the first in the UK", it appeared that DC-UK's response was to counter by securing a UK-first review for Fighting Vipers 2 instead.

The editor for the issue was Lee Hart, as long-time editor Keith Stuart —who'd been in the role since issue seven— had moved on to greener pastures (although he did provide some freelance writing for this issue). And greener pastures they were, as Lee's first port of call as the new editor of DC-UK was to announce that Sega was to become a third-party developer.

Despite the change of editor, and a reduced page count (100 pages, down from around 130 pages at the magazine's peak), issue 20 of DC-UK was still a decent read, although the kind of off-the-wall features and cutaways the mag had become known for were largely absent. Where were Nostradamus' Dreamcast predictions? The hungover fishing trips? Instead, readers got four pages at the front of the issue dedicated to Toy Commander developer No Cliché's then-upcoming Agartha — and that game didn't even release! Surely that space would've been better filled with a spread showcasing photos of the DC-UK team's body parts? (That was actually a genuine reoccurring DC-UK feature. I'm not being weird!)

All jokes aside, the Agartha feature is certainly interesting, and offered a staggering amount of behind-the-scenes content considering the piece's short page count, including screenshots, concept sketches, work-in-progress renders, and a conversation with former head of No Cliché, Frédérick Raynal. Reading it in 2026 feels somewhat surreal, knowing what ultimately would (or wouldn't) become of the game.

Being that the issue released in February of 2001, there were still enough upcoming releases on the horizon to give worried Dreamcast fans reason to keep the faith. Previews this month included Sega heavy-hitters Daytona USA 2001 and Skies of Arcadia, alongside a number of titles that would ultimately end up as Japanese and US imports for us here in old Blighty. The Last Blade 2 and Giga Wing 2 promised niche thrills for arcade connoisseurs, while The Typing of the Dead and Illbleed lay in wait to deliver their own uniquely quirky brands of horror.

DCJY welcomes Mike Tucker

We had to do something special for the 150th episode of our podcast, the DreamPod. Well, turns out that Tom is good friends with gaming industry veteran and design director of indie powerhouse Bitmap Bureau, Mike Tucker, and getting him on the pod was long overdue.

Joined by the foremost expert on Giant Killers in the Western world™, Kev, we look back at Mike's career in the games industry — from playtesting classics like Carmageddon at SCi Games, to his time at io Productions working on the cancelled Dreamcast sheep-herding title Stampede and spending many gruelling hours trying to break Giant Killers (spoiler: it broke him), right through to his present-day work at Bitmap Bureau creating critically acclaimed titles such as Terminator 2D: No Fate, and Xeno Crisis, the latter of which placed third in our 2024 Top 25 Dreamcast Indie Games community vote.

You can listen to this episode of the DreamPod on BuzzSprout, as well as all good podcast platforms.

English Fan Translation Released for Sega Dreamcast Shooter Triggerheart Exelica!

It's become tradition at this point for top hacker Derek Pascarella to gift us with at least a handful of English fan translations of Japanese Sega Dreamcast games each year. He just gave us Di Gi Charat Fantasy back in December, and now it's the turn of Warashi's cult-favourite shoot 'em up Triggerheart Exelica.

A port of a NAOMI arcade game, Triggerheart Exelica released for Dreamcast exclusively in Japan in —get this— 2007. In fact, it was released so late into the Dreamcast's commercial lifespan, we actually covered the news of its upcoming release here on the Junkyard! 

It was also one of 13 Dreamcast titles to ship in a DVD case.

Triggerheart has been an easy import for years due to it requiring little knowledge of Japanese to access its gameplay and enjoy it, but Derek's new patch will now allow you to follow along with its story mode in English, along with a few other bells and whistles. The localisation created for the game's 2023 Steam/Switch re-release served as a base translation, while dialogue exclusive to the Dreamcast version was translated into English by Walnut, who also made some additional refinements and translated the tutorial section. Text featured within graphics was also translated into English, with the altered graphics themselves reassembled by Malenko.

The game has a reputation for being bastard hard, and so Derek has seen to that as well by hacking in an "invincibility" mode that can be toggled on or off in the game's options and pause menus. Don't worry, this mode doesn't make you actually invincible to enemy fire, but instead grants you unlimited lives, so you never have to use a continue. This will allow those who struggle with the gameplay to still experience the storyline. Not all of us can be gods at shooters!

Analog stick support has also been implemented, for those who prefer to use it over the D-pad, and for us European players, Derek has also fixed a quirk where the game would default to 50Hz when booted up on a PAL console. With this patch, it now defaults to 60.

If you want to play this, simply mosey on over to the GitHub repository and download the patch. Instructions can be found in there on how to patch an existing GDI of the game. While you're at it, also grab yourself a free download of the game's rippin' soundtrack.

Launching the Dreamcast on 9/9/99 - An Interview with Electronics Boutique's Alexander Danielian

Dreamcast launch night on 9/9/99 at Electronics Boutique, Las Vegas.
(Image credit: Next Gen Magazine, November 1999)

Serendipity is a thoroughly wondrous phenomenon. I'm happy and confident to make this statement, as the parameters which lead to the following could quite easily be laid firmly at the door of said concept. See, a couple of weeks ago, I happened upon a fabulous interview conducted by The Retro Hour with one Alexander Danielian. Alexander was the store manager of the Electronics Boutique store at Sunset Galleria, Henderson, Las Vegas - the store which was selected by Sega of America as the flagship location for the launch of the Dreamcast on 9/9/99.

In that interview, Alexander explained how he was a pivotal cog in the Sega machine unleashing the Dreamcast on the expectant American public, and it was a truly fascinating glimpse behind the scenes. A few days after hearing the episode, a mutual friend, Jordan Freeman of Zoom Platform fame, reached out to me and asked if we here at the Junkyard would also like to speak to Alexander...and naturally I enthusiastically accepted.

Who even are you if you don't listen to The Retro Hour?

I want to make it clear that you should absolutley also listen to or watch The Retro Hour's fantastic interview with Alexander (think of this interview as a supplementary piece), but I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to really drill down into some specific Dreamcast-related insider info on that hallowed launch night, and pick Alexander's brain about some of the more esoteric aspects of the Dreamcast's brief tenure as the hottest new games console around.

Alexander was featured in Business Week for his outstanding Dreamcast sales performance.

The following interview is pretty in-depth and therefore quite lengthy, but naturally all of it is exquistely interesting, so I encourage you to read every word. You might even learn something about one of the enduring urban legends about special edition Dreamcast consoles and Electronics Boutique...

DCJY: Hi Alexander. It’s a pleasure to be able to speak with you. Could you give a brief introduction as to who you are and how you are linked to the story of the Dreamcast?

Alexander Danielian: Sure, it’s great to speak to you Tom. My name is Alexander Danielian, and I was the district trainer and store manager at Electronics Boutique at Sunset Galleria, Henderson, a suburb of Las Levas, Nevada - which was the flagship location for the official North American launch of Sega's Dreamcast console, back on 9/9/99.