It's 2024, we’re now into July, and the SEGA Dreamcast is still not dead. Critics are baffled. "It was supposed to have been declared dead in 2001, dammit!" - some PlayStation 2 owner, probably. In fact, there's been so much Dreamcast news recently that I've found it hard to keep up with it all, so in an effort to convince you all that I'm still in the loop (perhaps not sanity-wise), I've rounded up all the best items of recent news into one post. So, here's everything that has happened in the world of Dreamcast recently...
Indie and Homebrew
A huge breakthrough in Dreamcast development...
Credit: Orc Face Games |
A few weekends ago, Ross Kilgariff, the Dundee-based maestro behind the highly anticipated Dreamcast indie HarleQuest and head of Orc Face Games, dropped the Junkyard a DM about a big breakthrough in Dreamcast development which will result in a significant performance upgrade for new games being developed for our beloved platform. Take it away, Ross...
"We (Orc Face Games) recently hired TapamN to get the HarleQuest! engine running as fast as possible. For those who don't know, he's one of the best programmers in the unofficial Dreamcast scene, with over 20 years of experience and he's helping elevate everyone's understanding of the platform.
While optimising the code, he found a critical bug in the operating system that's used as a basis for many unofficial projects including HarleQuest!, Simulant Engine, Spiral 3D and more. This operating system, KallistiOS, is a community-driven effort to provide re-usable code that makes Dreamcast development easier for everyone.
The issue is quite technical but I'll try to keep it simple. There's a special kind of memory inside the CPU called the cache. It's way faster than RAM, but also way smaller (only 16KB in the Dreamcast's case). Normally the cache works automatically and doesn't need any special programming - it just stores things you've accessed recently so it's faster to get them next time. However, the Dreamcast's CPU has a special feature called OCRAM that lets you take control of half the cache manually. This can let you get great performance, but you need to actually program it. It's not on auto-pilot anymore.
The bug is that since November last year, OCRAM mode was being enabled by default in KallistiOS. This meant every game was saying "give me manual control over half of the cache" on startup, then simply not using it - in effect being left with only 8KB of automatic cache instead of the full 16KB.
As soon as we made the KallistiOS community aware of this they got straight to it and fixed the bug within a few hours. Falco Girgis identified the cause and worked with darc and BBHoodsta to coordinate the fix. The developer responsible for the Doom 64 port (jnmartin84) verified the fix and reported that with this change along with another optimisation, the busiest areas of the game don't chug any more and play much more smoothly.
On one hand, it's unfortunate that the bug occurred in the first place, but the benefit is that all those cool 3D demos and games we've been seeing recently will be able to pull the latest version of KallistiOS and might get an automatic speed boost.
Hopefully this is one step closer to seeing more high-quality games on the platform. I have a good feeling about 2025."
Bleem! is dead... long live Bloom! - New PlayStation emulator for Dreamcast
Credit: Sega Wiki |
Neo Byte Force: A Barrel of Fun
Ian strikes again! Neo Geo CD Emulation
New game from Retro Sumus - SOVIETBORGS!
I can't believe it's been over three years since Spanish development outfit (and friends of the 'Yard!) Retro Sumus released their excellent 3D shooter Xenocider for Dreamcast. Since then, the game has gone onto receive oodles of praise, and placed at the staggering position of fifth in our Top 25 Dreamcast Indie Games poll back in February.But what's next for Retro Sumus? Well, say hello to SOVIETBORGS, a title which is apparently going to be kind of like Cannon Fodder and will be playable on both Mega Drive (Genesis for you Americans) and Dreamcast. While it won't be the graphical powerhouse that Xenocider is, it still looks to be heavy on worldbuilding and very stylish, featuring a post-apocalyptic "what if the Soviets won and got their hands on crazy technology" almost Wolfenstein-esque plotline. While not much else is known about the game at this point, you can follow Retro Sumus on Twitter for updates, along with the Dreamcast-Talk thread about the game.
Pre-alpha screenshot |
Monaco GP for... VMU?
There are plenty of Dreamcast homebrew projects coming out all the time, but if I included all of the most recent ones here, this round-up would end up as long as the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, to end this section, I thought I'd include something that's been floating about since April, but warrants being honoured here on the blog. Developer Marble_Granite has ported Monaco GP to the VMU. To clarify, this isn't an adaptation of the Dreamcast Ubisoft title that has like 100 different names, but the SEGA arcade game which was released in Japan in 1979 and worldwide in 1980.
Credit: The Sega Guru |
While it's currently only in the demo/preview phase, what Marble_Granite has developed here is a fairly faithful recreation of the original, especially considering the graphical limitations of the VMU. It's been a while since we saw any new software for the Dreamcast's trusty little memory card, and so this is definitely welcome. To get this app for your own VMU, you can download it here. As for some gameplay footage, look no further than the video below from The Sega Guru.
Fan Translations
Sega Tetris translated and back online!
We have a bit of a double whammy for the whimsical Japan-exclusive Sega Tetris. Firstly, it's back online (supporting up to four players!) thanks to the work of online community stalwart Shuouma. What’s more, PC Wizard has worked on translating all of the online menus, messages, and dialogues into English to allow English-speaking players easier navigation when playing online.
For more information on this release, as well as how to get Sega Tetris online for yourself, head over to PC Wizard's blog post on the Dreamcast Live website. You'll need a special patched version of the game to play online, so go and download that and tell that weird monkey the Junkyard said "Hi". Check out some gameplay footage from PC below.
Virtua Cop 2 translated into English
Derek's back. Back again. Derek's back. Tell a friend. This time, the industrious Derek Pascarella has brought us an English translation patch for Virtua Cop 2, that - in his own words - "almost didn't even need to be created!"
Basically, while Japan were lucky enough to receive a standalone release of Virtua Cop 2 for the Dreamcast, the only Western release of AM2's acclaimed light gun shooter was the one included in the US-exclusive Sega Smash Pack: Volume 1 collection. What Derek has essentially done with his latest patch is swap in the English assets from the Smash Pack release so English-speaking players can also play a standalone version in their native tongue. For the sake of convenience it's definitely handy to just load this up on the GDEMU rather than proceed through the Smash Pack menus.
To download this patch, head on over to Derek's GitHub page for the project, and be sure to read the patching instructions to apply the patch. Also check out Derek's plethora of other Dreamcast projects at his website DreamcastForever.com.
Credit: Derek Pascarella |
Capcom Vs SNK 2 English translation in the works
Derek can't be stopped! Next up in Derek's mission to correct all the ways in which the West suffered when it came to certain Dreamcast releases being exclusive to Japan (but then sadly showing up later in English on frankly, *ahem* inferior consoles), is the fantastic Capcom vs SNK 2. Turns out that the game's English assets were already "hidden" within the game's Japanese release this whole time!
This is currently a work in progress from Derek, with "way more assembly hacking than [he] initially thought, but it's coming along." So keep an eye out for this English translation patch in the near future! You can of course follow Derek on Twitter for updates.
Of course referring to our esteemed Junkyard colleague Andrew Dickinson, here. (Credit: Derek Pascarella) |
***
So that's all for June 2024. As I was writing this, I did hear that the first Marvel vs. Capcom and its sequel will be releasing on Switch, PlayStation and Steam as part of the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection, which is pretty cool. It also looks like a remake of The House of the Dead 2 is coming out soon too, which is cool, I guess. Hopefully it’ll be a lot better than the remake of the first game that came to the Switch in 2022.
As for me, I'll just be playing all of these games on my slowly yellowing, extremely loud SEGA thing. Anyway, let me know in the comments below or on social media if any of the recent Dreamcast news in this round-up excites you. Until next time!
2 comments:
Thanks for this huge news update.
The Spiral Engine looks beautiful. Really captures that Dreamcast era vibe. In the same way Crow Country has recently aped PS1 aesthetics I would love to see an original game use this Spiral Engine. Even a (whisper it) Shenmue III demake...
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