4x4 Jam, Flashback & Ganryu Head Up New Dreamcast Releases

French publisher JoshProd has finally revealed to us the details of the latest batch of titles heading to the Sega Dreamcast, and this time gamers can expect three titles that are totally new to to system. 4x4 Jam is an off-road racer featuring fully 3D visuals and sprawling open stages, while Delphine's classic 2D adventure Flashback: The Quest For Identity has been built from the ground up as a brand new, officially licensed Dreamcast port. The other games in the release line-up include Visco's Neo-Geo scrolling beat 'em up Ganryu, a new PAL-boxed version of Sturmwind, and a re-issue of Orion's retro-styled RPG Zia and the Goddesses of Magic (check out our recent review here).

4x4 Jam is actually a port of a game that has been available on both the Sony PSP and Android/iOS for some time, and is particularly interesting as it potentially opens the door for ports of similar games designed for low-powered mobile devices. The video above was recorded from an actual Dreamcast and shows off some of the sprawling landscapes and Smuggler's Run style gameplay.

Flashback: The Quest For Identity is also of great interest, as this particular version has been designed from scratch for the Dreamcast, incorporating brand new menu screens, visual options and controls perfectly mapped to the Dreamcast controller. The game also features the full and uncut intro cinematics only previously seen in the PC version, along with full support for the VMU with a 'save anywhere' function. While Flashback has been available to play on the Dreamcast prior to this release, the versions available have either been homebrew ports designed to work with the SD reader, or via the emulation of other systems. This bespoke version has been officially licensed by Delphine Software and ported specifically for the Dreamcast using the original source code supplied.

The last 'new to Dreamcast' game is Ganryu, a side-scrolling beat 'em up originally created by Visco for the Neo-Geo. In it, the player assumes the role of a ninja who must battle through various stages themed after feudal Japan, kicking heads in and exacting revenge. The game is pretty rare and sought after on the Neo-Geo, and like Breakers before it uses a refined version of the Neo4All emulator. It too has been given official blessing by Visco Games.

As stated above, the other two games that complete the lineup are Duranik's awesome Sturmwind and Orion's Zia - both given new PAL-themed packaging, cases and manuals. We spoke to Philippe Nguyen from Joshprod to get more details on the latest set of releases:

DCJY: Hi Philippe, thanks for speaking to us. First, what prompted you to seek out Ganryu?

Philippe Nguyen: We actually scheduled to release it a long time ago because there aren't so many games like this on Dreamcast. It's a side scrolling action arcade game that's very hard...but if my son can finish it, I'm sure you could also do it!

4x4 Jam is an interesting choice - were you a fan of the PSP game?

When the PSP system was released I was a big fan, mainly because it proposed - like the Dreamcast - a connection to the internet and it had an impressive screen resolution. It was easily my favorite portable system back then. I discovered 4x4 Jam during this period and downloaded it due to a very good reviews from lots of websites. It's one of my favourite games for the PSP so it was a simple choice to bring it to Dreamcast.

What was the process in getting the game ported? Was it an easy process?

A professional programmer (he's been programming on Dreamcast since 2000 on an official devkit) made the port with the original PSP source code, and it's taken a few weeks to port it. We tried to include additional options and improvements over the PSP version.

The port in interesting as it potentially opens the door for more ports of other similar titles - is this something we could see in the future?

Yes for sure - we have two other games in our sights. If the Junkyard's fanbase are in contact with programmers or owners of old IPs they could contact me and we could maybe think about the possibility of porting the game (if it's a good game of course!)

Flashback is a classic title that many people will be familiar with. How were you able to get this game made for Dreamcast? Were there any difficulties in acquiring the license?

Acquiring the license for Flashback was not easy, it's taken more than a year to trace the owner of the IP. When I finally contacted him it was quite easy to convince him because we had already released our first Dreamcast games (Rush Rush Rally Reloaded, Breakers etc) and we could show him the quality of our manufacturer. When we received the code source, Chui (who did the work on Breakers) ported it with a lots of improvements (screen size, all European languages, mix all original version and take the best of each, we also included a 16-bit original version with Japanese text).

Thanks to Philippe Nguyen for answering our questions. All of these games will be available to pre-order at Rush On Game from the 4th August 2017, priced around €29.99 and are expected to be shipped in September 2017. As ever, we'll be sure to keep you in the loop. Follow Joshprod on Twitter and Facebook for further details. What do you think? Let us know in the comments or join the discussion in our Facebook group here.

Update: pre-orders for all of these games, plus the previous games from JoshProd are now available to pre-order from Rush On Game here.