May I take this opportunity, on behalf of all of the Dreamcast Junkyard team, Tomleecee, Gagaman(n), Caleb and myself, Father Krishna to wish all our readers and commentors a very Merry Christmas! Let us know what the old guy stuffs down yer chimney...

Back and forth! The New Dreamcast trademark! What does it all mean? Nothing?!!?!?!

From: GameDaily

"SEGA has no plans to get back into the hardware business, but we also want to protect our past and current brands. The trademark application was filed to protect our current and potential future use of the word DREAMCAST and to prevent other parties from using it in a way that could be confused or linked with SEGA," Sega of America PR Director Charlie Scibetta.

Hmm. Well I have personally seen a bunch variations of "Dream Gear" plug and play games on the market in the past and recently that look a hell of a lot like Dreamcast controllers. So I guess protecting the good Sega Hardware name makes sense.

And I suppose if Sega is going to release more Dreamcast titles on the current gen consoles via digital distribution it might spark another round of CYA (cover your assets). It might be cool to have "Dreamcast Brand" digital downloadable games.

...if I had a newer console anyways.

I feel bad that I will not be able to own a Dreamcast 2. Ah well, my North America Dreamcast game collection is not complete yet. And maybe one day I will be able to download some games on another console.

The Magic of Seaman, captured on film.

One of the true gems in the Dreamcast's library and possibly the oddest virtual pet sim you'll ever play, Seaman is not so much a game you play as it is an experience you er...experience. Because the game involves talking through a little green microphone to your mutated fish, ripping footage of the game simply isn't enough to capture what makes this game so special, and it's also difficult to predict just when the game will surprise you with something new.

While I would just recommended buying the game and playing it for yourself, if you're not afraid of being spoiled on some of the events along the way, or have already played the game, there is a great series of videos on Youtube by New Gen Gamers, where you will see the game from when the babies have hatched, up until the point that the fish start to talk well and ask you questions. Have a lookie below for the dull tank dull of miserable crabby fish that will make your life complete.




Elend's Most Fabulous Creations!




If you scroll down a little bit, you'll see a wonderful post by Caleb , about the Dreamcast's 9th anniversary competition, hosted by our most wonderful brothers over in Germany, Dreamcast Scene, in conjunction with Redspot Games (creators of the most excellent Dreamcast 'shmup' Last Hope) and also, quite surprisingly Sega Europe!

In Germany, they do a much better job of keeping our beloved consoles alive, than we do in the UK or USA! Wanna know why? Check out this and this!

I checked into the first competition, couldn't answer the question, then forgot to check out the rest! Oh how I wished I had! For I might have been the luckiest man in the world and won this!!!! elend's most amazing custom Redspot Dreamcast!!! How fucking cool is that???

Gaze on it's awesomeness! Bask in it's beauty! Revel in it's glory! God bless Dreamcast Scene! God love Redspot Games! And God bestow all His ultimate gifts on the genius that is... elend!

Oh! And the most exciting part of the post!? The mighty elend is now a contributor on the Dreamcast Junkyard's little brother, the Saturn Junkyard!

You see? I get all the best people! I got the mighty (if short) Greek wonder of the world, Gnome, I got America's finest, the American Dreamcaster, Caleb, I got Germany's finest graphic artist, elend, and I got "the special one" the awesome NebachadnezzaR!!! Pride of Portugal!!!

...and it's our birthday party on the 13th! And I want to see all of our readers and contributors there!!!! (Yes especially you Gagaman(n)...)

Happy days!!!

Don't get you hopes up, but... (UPDATED)

From Videogamer.com:

SEGA Corporation has filed a new application to protect the trademark Dreamcast - sparking rumours that the Japanese publisher is planning on making a shock return to the console manufacturing market with the Dreamcast 2.

The application, sent to the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) dated August 13 2007, relates to:

Home video game machines; player-operated electronic controllers for electronic video game machines; video game interactive controller, namely, hand held pads, and floor pads or mats; joysticks for video games; computer cursor control devices, namely, computer mouse; flash memory cards; video game software, computer game programs".

Web chatter suggests the proof is in the detail of the application - the original Dreamcast didn't have a floor mat accessory and the Dreamcast's Visual Memory Unit (VMU) is far from the flash memory cards we know and use today - although we'd say that the VMU is pretty similar to the modern day memory cards.

The filing could, of course, simply be a further effort from SEGA to protect the Dreamcast name. According to the USPTO the original Dreamcast trademark is still active. However, the two descriptions are very different. You can see the original trademark description here.

We've contacted SEGA UK for comment. We'll update you on this potentially megaton story as we get it.

By the sounds of it, Sega is simply updating their trademark of the name Dreamcast so that no one else can use it for something, but when you compare the new trademark to the old one, you'll notice the description is rather different.

What could this be hinting at? It's probably nothing, but Sega could have something up their sleeves involving our favorite little system, or at least it's brand name. There's a possibility that Sega plan to port Dreamcast games to a download service such as the Virtual Console, X-Box Live Arcade (which is already getting REZ, Trigger Heart and Ikaruga) or Playstation Network. Of course this is only the most rationale reason I could think of other than protecting the name, but if we really wanna let our minds wander...

DREAMCAST 2?
(A dreadful mock up I drew in about 2 minutes)

EDIT: According to Gamedaily, It's been confirmed by Sega that they are defiantly not considering going back into the hardware business, saying they are sticking to their guns of being a third party developer, that has so far been better for them then people realize. HOWEVER, it is still unknown, even to the Sega representative who responded, exactly why Sega of Japan has updated their trademark. While a new console is obviously out of the question, there's a small chance they have something up their sleeve. Remember back when they announced they were moving into the multi platform side of things that they had plans to develop the Dreamcast hardware into a single chip which could be used in other devices, such as set top boxes etc? Just a thought.