Grand Theft Auto 3 for the Dreamcast - DCA3 Alpha Version Now Available

Japanese cover art mock-up courtesy of Dreamcast-Talk user k-do.
Most of you will likely know that a port of Grand Theft Auto III for the Sega Dreamcast has been in the works for some months now. Indeed, those outside the niche Dreamcast scene may have even heard the news given that the project gained coverage across the broader gaming press earlier this year, attracting everything from wide-eyed amazement through to cynical befuddlement. Back then, spectating the porting work was possible because the project was out in the open, with every ounce of progress laid bare for the public to see in real time.

In recent weeks though, this dynamic was lost as those at the heart of the project shifted to working in a behind-the-scenes fashion - most likely to reduce the risk of Rockstar putting the kibosh on the project before it had a chance to bear fruit. As such, we went from hearing near-daily updates, to a radio silence that carried the potential to feed cynical thoughts: where's my freaking GTA 3 already? What are those lazy no-good schlubs doing? Maybe a port wasn't feasible all along! and so on, and so forth. Fortunately though, even with the absence of a cheerleading public, it seems that the rapid pace of development didn't slow down one iota, as today the alpha version of DCA3 (top marks for this pun lads) has been released.

What does it stand for though? Can you do better than 'divine car abduction III'? Let's hear your suggestions in the comments please.

What does this mean exactly? Well, it means that, with a little jiggery pokery, you can compile a version of GTA 3 that will run on your Dreamcast. Given that it is an alpha version, bugs and occasional crashes are to be expected. Nevertheless, many testers have reported running the game for extended periods without issue, and, in my experience, the alpha version looks gorgeous and runs far better than I had expected it might. The controls map quite naturally on to the Dreamcast's regular controller (for the most part), and, perhaps most importantly, those who wish to progress with Claude through the game's infamous gangland story are be able to save progress to a VMU (although using one which is otherwise empty is recommended).

A key reason that you will need to compile your own alpha version, rather than simply download a ready-to-go .CDI or .GDI, is that players are expected to have their own legitimate version of the game. Morals and ethics aside, this is obviously an absolutely essential step to ensure the preservation of the porting project - any moves that have even the slightest whiff of piracy risk incurring the wrath of some extremely well resourced legal teams.

A sight to behold. Not the undecorated walls... GTA 3 on the Dreamcast!

Fortunately, compiling instructions are available. So, as long as you are capable of following these, have bought a copy of GTA 3 for PC (Rockstar offer a digital version with Vice City and San Andreas for a reasonable price), and have a Dreamcast that can play burned discs or has an optical drive emulator installed, then you should be good to go.

It would be wrong to drop this piece of news and not say something about the significance of the release. Really, it's hard to overstate what a monumental achievement the port is. In less than a year, an international crew of enthusiastic developers ('The Gang'), led by the mastermind skmp, have applied their skills to voluntarily deliver one of the defining games of the sixth console generation to the Dreamcast - a game that had begun development on Sega's swansong console, but instead ended up fuelling the stratospheric success of the arch-rival PlayStation 2, shifting 11 million copies for that console alone. 

In the intervening years the possibility of GTA 3 running on the DC has cropped up again and again as a topic of conversation in the scene, whether that be the technical flavour of 'could it be done?' or the alternative history variant of 'what if it had been?' The latter conversation may still plod on forever more, but the former is now totally dead and buried. Evidently, with the right skills and commitment, use of the free development library KallistiOS, and access to reverse-engineered code, it has now been definitively proven that the Dreamcast is more than capable of running this game.

Image created by Brazilian Dreamcast supremo NaiSan.

Of course, what is on offer right now is only an alpha version, but given the team's track record, it seems highly likely that the project will progress on to further iterations that buff out the rough edges. For now, all that's left to do is hear a few words from 'The Gang' themselves...

Merry 'Castmas! - The Festive Games of the Sega Dreamcast

This time last year, I had almost no time to enjoy the holiday festivities. I was unable to put up a tree or lights, let alone restore holiday cheer to Twin Seeds City. Rather, we were swamped with uprooting our lives, dog, and 15 years’ worth of belongings as we prepared to move across the Atlantic. It made for a hellishly stressful shitmas.

This year is the opposite, mercifully. So far I’ve enjoyed relaxing and rekindling the holiday spirit. I’ve indulged in some longstanding traditions, while adopting several new ones from this side of the pond. The Christmas markets, Sunday roasts, and excessive pints at my locals have helped make this season all the merrier. Of course, I’ve also been playing a bunch of Dreamcast games to help celebrate the season.

Sega’s final console imparted us with a multitude of titles that could be considered festive in one sense or another. Of course, these games will resonate with different folks in different ways. Some are dusted in snowscapes, some are lit with Christmas decor, and some just have festive vibes. Whichever the case, the following games have helped restore my holiday spirit in their own odd and unique ways…


Blue Stinger 

I’ve spilled plenty of ink championing Blue Stinger as a highlight of the Dreamcast’s festive offerings, and its library in general. We’ve also rambled about the game in several of our podcast episodes by this point. In fact, you can listen to our latest DreamPod dedicated solely to Shinya Nishigaki and Climax Graphics’ holiday classic.

Ditching any semblance of survival horror, Blue Stinger teeters a balance of action/beat ‘em up, B-movie camp, and festive vibrancy. Yet that understates how hard it goes on all counts.

Whether you crave gory fisticuffs or holiday cheer, Blue Stinger indulges in both and spares us from all nuance. If you want to obliterate Dinosaur Island’s mutant folk, its vending machines offer a buffet of shotguns, stun rods, rocket launchers, and lightsabers for your destructive delight. And if you want Christmas cheer, it will bury you in an avalanche of neon snowman, chipper earworms, and festive/bizarre Pen Pen cameos. 

Blue Stinger embodies holiday excess and it will charm the shit out of you if you let it.

Christmas moral: We can capture the magic of Christmas with just a little brute force...and tequila.

Beverage pairing: Mistletoe Margaritas

Dessert pairing: Hassy pudding

Song pairing: My friend Angela’s metal karaoke rendition of “Feliz Navidad” followed by this song on loop for 10 hours


Cool Boarders Burrrn! (NTSC-J) / Snow Surfers (PAL) / Rippin’ Riders (NTSC-U)

As a game without a consistent title between regions (for legal reasons), I at least appreciate their alliteration.

Frankly, I’ve always wished I enjoyed UEP System’s Dreamcast snowboarding game more than I traditionally have. I still return to it every couple years thinking that maybe it will finally click. It never fully does but we’ll muddle through somehow.

Perhaps my expectations were overblown by my love for other turn-of-the-millennium snowboarding games. I always balked at Snow Surfers’ stifling rigidity. It offers limited potential for exploration and improvisation, which contrasts unfavorably with the likes of SSX, Amped, and even Steep Slope Sliders. But in its own charming way, that also makes Rippin’ Surfers a unique kind of grind. Countdown timers are unforgiving and tricks are limited to specific launch points (as with other Cool Boarders games). There are just a few viable approaches to each course, which I was compelled to practice ad nauseam to improve my best scores and inch towards more optimal runs.

Unmoored from the expectations of its contemporaries, I found a merry little game in Burrrn Riders. With a little persistence, carving the slopes feels surprisingly serene, and is further bolstered by the chill beats and nifty set pieces. It’s not an expansive game but its simplicity makes it feel oddly cozy.

Christmas moral: Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy games for what they are.

Beverage pairing: Jingle Juice with Mountain Dew

Dessert pairing: Christmas crumble or something with alliteration

Song pairing: Merry Muthafuckin’ Christmas” by Eazy-E


Shenmue

AM2’s classic Santa stalking simulator needs no introduction here. I’ll just say that — with Shenmue’s dynamic weather system — I had to load through all my Xbox saves, all my PS5 saves, and a dozen VMUs before I finally found a save state where it was actually snowing in Dobuita. After that, I had a jolly time crunching through the snow and following Santa around town as he peddled local boozers to underage teenagers before imbibing at them himself. We couldn’t stay out too late, though. Ryo still had to show up for his forklift job on Christmas Day. 

On a side note, Mark's mandatory, pre-shift forklift races do not pay overtime and that’s fucking bullshit.


Christmas moral: Unionize.


Beverage pairing: Milk

Dessert pairing: Nothing. Ryo doesn’t eat food in Shenmue 1 because he is a ryobot

Song pairing: Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)” by Harvey Danger


The Time a Bus Company tried to get Jet Set Radio Banned in the United Kingdom

While modern Sega tends to stick to the straight and narrow (i.e. reboot Sonic every other year, say they'll give us a new Crazy Taxi but only if it's some live service guff), they've certainly had some contentious moments throughout their history. At this point we've all heard about the United States Senate hearings concerning Night Trap. Throw a stone at YouTube and it's bound to land on a video covering the topic for the umpteenth time, not to mention countless deep dives into the Japanese multinational's various crappy business decisions. If you want to talk real controversial Sega history, how about the time they threatened a poor, innocent Dreamcast fansite with legal action? We're not still bitter or anything...

During the Dreamcast era, Sega found themselves in the sights of the city of Milwaukee's Common Council, who petitioned them to cancel the release of Smilebit's Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio, as it was known there in the US). The council claimed that the game would glamorise the act of graffiti tagging, with the fear being that it would encourage the young bucks of Milwaukee (geddit?) to transfer their petty vandalism from the virtual walls of Tokyo-To to the streets of Milwaukee itself. Ultimately, the game wasn't cancelled, but Tom's article on the whole saga is definitely worth a read.

The youths are going to graffiti your gran!

For a long time, we here at the Junkyard thought that was the extent of the concern surrounding Jet Set Radio's apparent mission to turn the youth of 2000 into mindless paint-spraying zombies. This was until Antosk8er in our Discord shared something very interesting that we'd never seen before. Turns out there were some powers that be attempting to get Jet Set Radio withdrawn from sale here in the United Kingdom too...

What Antosk8er found was a PDF of a report dated May 2002 from the London Assembly Graffiti Investigative Committee titled "Graffiti in London". The committee in question, which was comprised of three politicians - each from one of the three main political parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats) - was established in 2001 with the goal to “investigate graffiti across London, examining examples of best practice in its prevention and removal".

To be fair, those tags are pretty shit.

While I can definitely appreciate the artistry behind graffiti (no, this does not confirm that I am in fact Banksy), I can sympathise with the reasoning behind the establishment of this committee. In the foreword of the report, a 2001 survey is cited, which said that 77% of Londoners listed graffiti as “a quality of life concern". The report also mentions that "local authorities, transport organisations, businesses and private individuals [were] spending millions of pounds each year trying to prevent and remove it." But who needs money when you've got graffiti soul?

The report also painted a dreary picture of the effect graffiti was having on Londoners. "Graffiti has a negative effect on the lives of the thousands of Londoners who travel in vandalised, unpleasant buses and trains, and live in areas blighted by graffiti." And this, my sweet soul brothers, is where Jet Set Radio came into the picture.

Preview: Sovietborgs

Nearly three years on since the release of the fabulous Xenocider, Spanish indie development studio Retro Sumus have released more tantalising details about their follow-up Dreamcast and Mega Drive/Genesis offering, Sovietborgs. Retro Sumus have taken something of a diversion with Sovietborgs though - as you can probably tell from the screenshots dotted throughout this article - moving away from the polygonal splendour of Xara's 2021 Sin & Punishment homage, and instead channelled the likes of The Chaos Engine (and possibly early Saturn/PlayStation shooter Loaded) with this latest project.

For the record, the images here are taken from a very early demo of the Mega Drive version of Sovietborgs (releases for both Sega platforms were announced simultaneously), and the Dreamcast version promises visual and audio enhancements, more of which you can read about in the short interview below. But first, you may well be asking yourself: what the hell is a Sovietborg and why should I give a damn?!

According the official lore of Sovietborgs (um...Retro Sumus' Twitter account), the story goes a little something like this:

On November 9, 1989, 11:14 pm, the KGB's glorious electronic brain, Tovarishch-Prime, became self-aware, and immediately managed to take control of Arpanet, triggering the detonation of all capitalist thermo-nuclear devices inside their own silos. 

25 years later, the West remains a nuclear wasteland. But like cockroaches, there are still pockets of resistance and free-thinking threatening our workers' paradise. In these forsaken locations, new mutant races emerged due to radiation and their sickening capitalist mind. Fortunately, the Soviet People have developed a new unit of the illustrious Red Army, the Sovietborgs. 

Half man, half machine, all proletarian, they can go where no one else can, inmune to radiation, and liberate all new capitalist races from their pitiful existence. Join the Sovietborgs. Become a part of their prestigious present and future, travel the world pacifying all hotbeds of belligerence. Let the dream world of our venerable Tovarishch-Prime finally become a reality for all.

So yeah, something about capitalists and cyborgs. And guns. Lots of guns. We've played the limited demo of Sovietborgs and found it to be a rather enjoyable explore-and-shoot-stuff style romp, where you control the lead 'borg (designated by a little hat, naturally), while two AI controlled 'borgs follow you around and do your bidding. And by 'bidding' I mean shoot stuff. 

The demo is really only a single level, but it gives a good idea of what we can expect in the final game, with you controlling the squad as you move through ruined landscapes wiping out hordes of zombies which burst through randomly appearing portals with a taste for human brains; spider things that erupt from puddles of green ooze; and...er...mutant chickens which cluck forth from eggs that descend from the heavens. You need to destroy the delivery methods from which these unspeakable bastards all spring too, otherwise they'll just keep coming. This can be a bit problematic on a technical level as the demo does suffer a little with slow down when the hordes get a bit big, but we have no doubt this will be sorted in the final game and opens up the Dreamcast version for some absolutely enormous crowds of enemies streaming towards your squad. Nice.

Funding the Junkyard - Patreon and Merch Announcement!

We have one big double whammy update coming your way today: All systems are go on our brand new Patreon, and we have an awesome new range of Dreamcast Junkyard merchandise launching too!

We are frequently asked by fans of the blog and podcast how they can help support The Dreamcast Junkyard with its operating costs, and for a while now, you've had two options: a BuyMeACoffee page for one-off donations, and a small collection of merchandise that’s been available since 2015. The Junkyard team have rocked these classic tees at their fair share of gaming conventions, but the roster of available designs hasn’t been updated for quite some time. 
Tom Yukawa modelling one of our original t-shirt designs. Timeless.

With our production values improving all the time on the website and podcast alike, and the persistence of that pesky phenomenon called "inflation", our monthly operating costs have increased too. So, to help keep the lights on whilst also ensuring that the Junkyard remains a 100% independent, not-for-profit, ad-free initiative, we thought it was high time to get a Patreon set up to allow for donations on a monthly recurring basis, and give our merchandise a refresh ahead of the site's 20th anniversary in 2025.

Patreon


I won't rabbit on too much here about the Patreon, as I'm certain you are more than aware of what one is; not to mention Lozz has gone to a lot of effort to summarise the ins-and-outs of it in a new dedicated section of the website (which is linked to below!) 

What’s important to stress, however, is that our aim with this Patreon is to solely cover our operating costs, and we will manage our Patreon in a way that is in accordance with this. This means we won't be producing any exclusive content for patrons, as we don't wish for anyone to be excluded from anything that the Junkyard produces. However, we are planning to have a semi-regular Q&A for patrons to take part in, and our answers will be presented on future episodes of the DreamPod.

Click here to go to our Patreon.

Merch

We decided it was time to break our merchandise dry-spell and do so in style. That's why we chose to collaborate with one of our favourite artists from the Sega fan community, Kopke, and his illustration/graphic design studio "From Ashes to Fire", to produce some truly epic new designs. 

The first of the two new designs available features a colourful cast of iconic Dreamcast characters, while the other is a clean new re-design of the Junkyard's logo. If my ADHD allows me enough executive function to do so, I endeavour to update our website and socials to incorporate this new design. For now though, you can enjoy rocking this new art on t-shirts, hoodies and long-sleeve shirts. There's even mugs and stickers available too. Buy a DCJY mug for work and watch your colleague's eyes glaze over as you answer the question "what is The Dreamcast Junkyard?"

We also opted to change our merch provider to Fourthwall, which means higher-quality products for all. We tried quite a few providers before landing on Fourthwall, and a big thanks goes out to KC of The Sega Lounge for pointing us in the right direction.

You can find our new merch range here.


***

So there you have it, new Patreon and merch! If you can't commit to monthly payments, the Buy me a Coffee page will remain up for one-off donations. We will also keep the old merch page up for those who still want to grab some of those classic Junkyard designs Tom put together.

That's all now. As always, we are grateful to everyone who supports the Junkyard, regardless of whether that is monetarily, or just reading our articles and listening to the podcast. The dream never dies!

Ordering a Pizza Online on a Sega Dreamcast in 2024

A few months ago, fellow Junkyard compatriot Harvey Jones notified me of a cool thing he'd seen in the Sega Online Discord. Considering Harvey's online/musical alias is Pizza Hotline, it was no surprise that what he wanted to share was, of course, pizza-themed...

Those of you in the loop may be aware that a sizeable section of our scene has been indulging in multiplayer gaming via fan-hosted servers for many years now, yet although it doesn't often get discussed, the ability to browse the web via the Dreamcast never disappeared either. Of course, given that the composition of your average website has changed dramatically since the turn of the Millennium, your mileage may vary while surfing the web via Sega's aging hardware. Many contemporary websites simply will not load, and to the dismay of geeks like us, few administrators are enlightened enough to produce Dreamcast-friendly versions of their sites, such as that created by Reye for the Dreamcast Junkyard (http://dcjy.reye.me).

But what if, after an exhilarating session of Phantasy Star Online, you are feeling hungry? Maybe you have a hankering for a piping hot pizza? You could reach for your smartphone and open your preferred delivery app... but no. Real Dreamcast gamers should order their pizza on the Dreamcast.

Well, that is exactly what "Delux" has proven to still be possible in the year of 2024. While ordering a pizza from Domino’s was actually possible on Dreamcast back in the day, Delux has been forced to think outside the box to acquire his favourite pizza pie. In the video that he has kindly prepared for us below, you can see the lengthy but very impressive process that is taken to place an order for two 12" pizzas with extra pepperoni - one pan style, one New York style - on the Domino's website.

So I suppose I should try and provide some kind of explanation for what is going on in the video... Okay, so basically, Delux is able to access the Domino's website on his Dreamcast by using a tool known as a "WRP", or "Web Rendering Proxy", which Google describes as a tool that's designed to "render web pages for use in antique web browsers". Wow... antique, huh? I'm not sure if I should be offended or not.

Dream Disc '24 Game Jam - More Details and an Interview with the Organisers

The logo for the Dream Disc' 24 Game Jam

On the 23rd of October, the organisers of the Dream Disc ‘24 Game Jam revealed their forthcoming event to the world, and, in the days that have since passed, their announcement has produced quite a buzz, not only within our niche scene, but across the wider gaming world too.

For some, the title of this hotly anticipated 'jam' may be confusing though, so let me break it down in lay terms. A game jam is a time-restricted event at which developers of various kinds will conceptualise and begin creating games. Much like a musical jam, the idea is that people with complementary skills will band together, sometimes with total strangers, and experiment in an open-minded environment. The hope is that the focused attention these conditions produce will result in some innovative results. Alas, it’s always a possibility that some of the outputs will be hideous abominations, but the learning and networking experience can be useful in and of itself nonetheless. 

A Peep Show meme with the game Frog Feast being referred to as not jam, but just 'fucking marmalade'.

In the case of the Dream Disc’ 24 Game Jam, developers are being encouraged to congregate online around itch.io and the Simulant Discord between Friday 20 December and Friday 3 January to “collaborate, build, tinker and show off” their projects. That being said, projects that were begun prior to these dates can be submitted, and entrants are welcome to drop by and introduce themselves whenever they may wish. In another wise move from the organisers, it’s also the case that, in addition to games, software utilities and even hardware can be accommodated for too.

So, that clears up the sticky issue of what ‘jam’ means. What about the ‘Dream Disc ‘24’ part? Well,  thanks to one of the event’s main sponsors, Orc Face Games, the top ten entries (as judged by expert panel) shall subsequently be featured on a physical CD-ROM to be made available to the public for the cost of shipping alone. If that wasn’t enough incentive, there is also a cash prize pool to be shared by the top three entrants. This currently stands at close to $900 USD, and in a peculiar twist of fate has been buoyed by advertising income that had been set aside for a contest to be hosted by the website DCEmu 15 years ago that never materialised. Those funds are now finally being put to good use thanks to one of the administrators of that OG website, darksaviour, digging them out all these years later. Of course, the pot is likely to grow further too as news spreads and additional donations are received

25 Years of Sega Dreamcast (EGX London 2024 Panel)

On the 27th of October at EGX London 2024, Christopher Dring of GamesIndustry.biz hosted a panel called "25 Years of Sega Dreamcast". The panel featured publishing veterans and founders of DC-UK magazine Caspar Field and Keith Stuart, as well as Junkyard member and author of the Dreamcast: Year One and Year Two books Andrew Dickinson, to discuss "one of the most influential games consoles that people didn't buy." 

Many great stories are shared throughout the discussion, and the panel really focuses in on what exactly made Sega's final console so fantastic. If you weren't there in the audience to see this talk live, fear not, as Dan from Debug Magazine was there to capture the whole thing on film, the footage of which we have preserved on our YouTube channel, complete with crisp 4K video quality and lovely clear audio (also thanks to Dan!)

Let us know what you thought of the talk by leaving a comment below, or on the video itself!

Halloween 2024 Compilation released for the Sega Dreamcast!

Looking for something to do this Hallows Eve? Perennial Dreamcast developer Ian Micheal and Adam Burrell have got you covered with his latest Dreamcast compilation release, especially for Halloween.

The compilation features a number of spooky themed games from older systems like Castlevania Bloodlines, Splatterhouse 3, Ghostbusters and even a Halloween-themed ROM hack of Sonic The Hedgehog! My personal pick is the long lost Game Boy Color version of Resident Evil - here to play through in full. All together, there are a whopping 20 games to get stuck into and so you'll have plenty to do in between your pumpkin carving.

If you don't feel like gaming, you can also enjoy an animated movie called The Hallow Tree from 1993, or fire up the jukebox to listen to classics like Monster Mash, This is Halloween and Pet Cemetery.

It has to be said that as usual, the presentation of this compilation is impeccable. Ian works wonders with a menu system that makes most modern games bow their heads in shame. 

Available for free download, you can run Ian's gift to the community on a GDEMU or you can burn the CDI to disc. You can find the download link here.

If you like what you see, Ian has made compilations like this before for the Dreamcast - including a Christmas special from 2023 and of course his excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, which in all honestly is better than the official collections released recently!

On behalf of the entire Dreamcast community, we'd like to wholeheartedly thank Ian for this free release as well as everything else he's contributed over the years.

Dreamzone Magazine: First 15 Issues now Digitally Preserved

 

Parles-tu français? No, me neither. Languages weren't a strength of mine at school, and despite some derisory attempts to pick up Spanish during adulthood, I remain a stereotypically monolingual Brit. Nevertheless, last year I took up the task of acquiring and scanning a whole heap of Dreamcast magazines from across the globe that had yet to be digitally preserved. A handful of those missing from the internet are in English, but the vast majority are in the Romance languages of my European neighbours, Japanese and even varieties of Chinese. 

Why on earth would I bother doing this? Well, for one, I'm hopeful that the pages of these mags might contain some information that is useful to hobbyists, journos and potentially even the more rigorous varieties of gaming historians.

Fortunately the Junkyard crew's attitudes towards our French neighbours are much more comradely than that shown in this Dreamarena chat snippet...

Secondly, it seemed a shame that masses of material was only available to those who were fortunate enough to hold private collections. And lastly, given that there is no profit to be made from it, it was unlikely that digital preservation of this sort was going to happen unless I (or other volunteers) took it up. Oh, and the biggest reason of all - I'm a big dork and get a kick out of dorky endeavours.

Ok, enough with the prelude and on to the main event. The primary purpose of this post is to announce that the first 15 issues of the French magazine Dreamzone are now available for your viewing pleasure, hosted by the virtual Aladdin's cave that is Sega Retro. That is, over 2,000 pages of retro gaming journalism, brought back to life kicking and screaming from the dark depths of the turn of the Millennium. 

Feel free to browse the scans for yourself, or, for an introduction to the magazine and a run-down of its contents, read-on.

Dreamzone: Stalwarts of the French Scene (1998-2002)

Launched by the prolific FJM Publications in December of 1998, Dreamzone was the first magazine of its ilk to appear in Europe. Understandably enthused by the Japanese launch, their early start meant that the first few issues of the mag were dominated by salivating previews and reviews of exotic Japanese imports, as well as extensive pondering over what the coming European launch may entail. Once the wait was over in late 1999 a substantial proportion of the page budget was duly turned over to a PAL-specific focus, though coverage of the many, many Japanese releases still remained a mainstay until the bitter end.

The FJM Publication team circa 2000, featuring two chaps who took up the Editor-in-Chief role for Dreamzone: Vincent Maulon (issues 7-15) and Cedric Devoyon (issues 16-29).

Dreamzone featured everything you might expect from a magazine of its genre and age: a copious letters section, interviews with game industry heads, reporting from events, boisterous editorials, competitions, game tips, reviews and previews, and of course, crass slobbering over a digital Lara Croft. What was perhaps a little more odd was their persistent coverage of the Neo Geo Pocket - seemingly adopted as an unofficial companion for the Dreamcast, perhaps in spite of the console war rivals over at Nintendo. Looking at it through the lens of 2024, the haphazard reporting on movies and websites that filled the back end of the mag seems rather twee too, but may well have added some value for readers at a time when internet access was limited.

"I'm not BOY". Vive la Neo Geo Pocket!

Despite lacking the GD-ROM giveaway of its official competitor, Dreamzone still packed a lot of bang for it's buck (or Franc to be more precise), coming in at 132 pages per issue on average. And, from what can be established through some rudimentary internet sleuthing, the mag appears to be fondly remembered by many a French millennial - more so than its other national competitor, Game Dream, which was bizarrely ran by the same publishing house. Whether Dreamzone ever actually made it to the shores of distant Francophone territories mentioned in the small print of its cover (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Quebec) is a question for another day... 

Retro Fighters unveil a 6-Button Wireless Fight Controller for the Sega Dreamcast


When Retro Fighters' "next gen" Dreamcast controller went to Kickstarter, I recall some of my Junkyard colleagues presuming that it was designed specifically for fighting games. This was due to the company's name, along with the fact the controller's official name was "StrikerDC". It and its later wireless counterpart were, in fact, controllers designed for play with all manner of Dreamcast games, just with a more ergonomic form factor similar to that of modern controllers.

Well, Retro Fighters have unveiled today (9.9.99!) that they are actually now finally bringing us their very own take on a Dreamcast fight pad, with the upcoming "D6 Dreamcast" 6-Button Wireless Controller. Obviously the layout and shape of the controller is very reminiscent of the the beloved Sega Saturn controller, but in a Dreamcast context, seasoned fans will notice a lot of similarities to the excellent ASCII Pad FT, an officially licensed Dreamcast controller designed especially for fighters.

Of course, like Retro Fighters' other wireless Dreamcast controller, there are no VMU slots on this controller, and connectivity to the Dreamcast's trusty memory card will instead be delivered via a VMU dongle that plugs into the Dreamcast's controller ports. This dongle also doubles up as the method with which the controller connects to the console.


Available in both white and black, the controller boasts the following features (from their website):
  • Compatible with Dreamcast, PC, and Nintendo Switch
  • Low latency 2.4 GHz wireless technology
  • A precise and responsive D-pad
  • Equipped with integrated Kailh micro switches for both the D-pad and face buttons
  • Offers multiple modes: left stick, right stick, and d-pad configurations
  • Two customisable modes for C/Z buttons: choose between L/R shoulder buttons or specific “C” and “Z” buttons
  • Compatible with original VMUs, 4X, and the upcoming 8BITMODS VMU Pro

The controller is currently up for pre-order for the price of $49.99 (about £38) with an expected release of 2025.

What do you think of the D6 Dreamcast wireless controller? Are you excited to finally get a wireless fight pad for the Dreamcast? Let us know in the comments below of via one of our social media pages.

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 - Power Stone, Capcom Vs. SNK, and more coming to Modern Consoles with Online Play!

Capcom have just made a lot of Sega Dreamcast fans very happy. After previously announcing back in June that both Marvel Vs. Capcom and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 would return this September as part of their Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection, they've just gone and revealed that we're also going to be receiving Capcom Fighting Collection 2 on modern consoles in 2025, which includes some very significant Dreamcast fighters. And when I say significant… get this, Dreamcast lovers - Power Stone is on it! POWER STONE. And Power Stone 2 (the connoisseurs choice). And both Capcom VS. SNK games. And Project Justice. And Plasma Sword. Okay, no one cares about Plasma Sword.

Check out the announcement trailer below:

I felt giddy with joy just watching that. Why this upcoming release is so exciting is that the Dreamcast’s most beloved brawler Power Stone and its sequel were thought to have been left behind for good in 2006, when a collection of the two released for Sony’s PSP. But now here we are a little under two decades later in 2024 with a contemporary release of Power Stone coming our way! Another big deal in this upcoming collection is Project Justice - the sequel to Rival Schools (not to be confused with the band who did "Used for Glue") - as that game has never been released on any other console besides the Dreamcast, which is probably mostly why preowned copies of the game have been climbing in price in the last so many years.

The games by themselves would’ve been enough, but the glacier cherry on top of this awesome sundae is... all the included games will feature online play! Finally my long-suffering friends will no longer have to trek over to my house just to play endless rounds of their favourite game Power Stone 2 and nothing else for an entire day (they love it, really). They can instead now join the action from the comfort of their own homes, with the option to fake connectivity issues or simply just turn their console off as a means of escape. 

Here's all of the games included on this release:

  • Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro
  • Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001
  • Capcom Fighting Evolution
  • Street Fighter Alpha 3 UPPER
  • Project Justice
  • Power Stone
  • Power Stone 2
  • Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein

The collection is currently confirmed for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and Steam.

Are you looking forward to the collection? Excited to finally play some Power Stone online with your friends? Disappointed Tech Romancer wasn't included? Let us know in the comments below or via one of our social media channels.

An Interview with Kenji Tosaki: How the Sega Dreamcast and its Beloved Peripherals Came to Be

One day we realised that The Dreamcast Junkyard account on Twitter (or X, as it is now known...) was followed by none other than Kenji Tosaki, the peripheral development manager at Sega of Japan from the 1990s until 2001, when he retired. He led the design process for classic Sega Saturn peripherals like the 3D Control Pad and the Virtua Gun, but perhaps most importantly to us here at the Junkyard, he was heavily involved with the design of the Dreamcast console hardware, its controller, the Visual Memory Unit (VMU), and even the Samba de Amigo Maracas Controller, to name a few. To have such an important figure from Sega's heyday follow usof all peoplewas truly an honour. We knew we had to reach out and try and arrange some sort of opportunity to speak with him.

What followed was a whole lot of machine-translated correspondence, and we must thank Tosaki-san for answering all our questions, as well as his time and patience throughout this process. Another thank you also goes out to Brian Vines and Laurence Goodchild for assisting me with the decision on which questions to ask, as well as Derek Pascarella for some technical explanations.

Of course, we couldn't just let the resulting interview you see below remain machine-translated, so this is where I must extend a huge thanks to translation extraordinaire (and my former Nakoruru fan translation comrade-in-arms) Duralumin, who graciously translated Tosaki-san's original Japanese answers into English.

What was revealed from our conversation with Tosaki-san is a whole lot of great insight into how the Dreamcast hardware and many beloved peripherals came to be. We also thought it was important to use this opportunity to try and dig deeper into some of the more esoteric Dreamcast-related lore, to try and get some light shone on topics that have fuelled debates within Sega fan communities for decades. Why was a second analog stick a no show on the Dreamcast controller? What was Sega's view on adopting the almighty DVD format that would've supposedly helped the Dreamcast go toe-to-toe with Sony's PlayStation 2? We also made sure to pick Tosaki-san's brain about some cancelled Dreamcast peripherals, such as the VMU MP3 player, with the hopes of unearthing new information about them.

While our interview does touch on the Sega Saturn somewhat, it is mainly referenced to assist the explanation of points relating to the Dreamcast's own design. If you'd like to hear Tosaki-san get more in-depth about the Saturn, I highly recommend you go check out his interview with our friends over at SEGA SATURN, SHIRO!

Credit: Sega Retro

DCJY: Thank you for agreeing to talk with us about your career at Sega, Tosaki-san. We have read that you were involved with the design of the Dreamcast console. The design was definitely more compact than its predecessor, the Saturn, and very futuristic-looking for the time. When you and your team set out to design the console, what inspired the design?

Kenji Tosaki: The lead director and producer on the design of the Dreamcast was actually Mr. Oikawa [Akitoshi Oikawa], who also handled the design of the Sega Saturn. For the Dreamcast, the design of the console itself was contracted out, but Mr. Oikawa personally handled the controllers and other peripherals.

Now, when the Saturn was still in development, we ended up drawing up the design ahead of finalizing how much space all the internals would need. Stuff like the main board, the CD drive, power supply unit, all of that. The original design was quite a bit smaller than what the Saturn finally became. As development progressed, we added more components, and the footprint grew larger.

The preliminary designs for the console couldn't accommodate all the changes, so we had to go back to the drawing board, and it ended up quite a bit different from what we had originally envisioned. It had to be made larger, so we also had to redesign some of the finer details of its appearance to match.

With the Saturn, the technical development —the main board, the drive unit, etc.— and the product design had been sort of progressing on different fronts, and that disconnect caused us a lot of issues. Plus, the technical design turned out to be more complex than expected, so the production and assembly was more complicated. We learned from all of that when we were working on the Dreamcast. 

Our top priorities in designing the Dreamcast were to optimize the internal layout and heat dissipation. I think the internal design turned out really nice and clean. Of course, keeping it simple also helped with assembly. We also waited to plan out the console design until the technical design had been locked in to a certain extent, so we didn’t have to go back and rework a lot of things.

Regarding the design itself, we shopped the job around to a wide variety of outside agencies for proposals;  not just Japanese companies, but even American design houses. Mr. Oikawa reviewed a ton of ideas. 

Ultimately, Mr. Oikawa went with a relatively minor Japanese company’s proposal. They did a very good job of taking Mr. Oikawa’s asks into account when building their approach.

On the conceptual approach, I’ll quote Mr. Oikawa himself:

"The Dreamcast design is made up of simple shapes; squares, triangles, and circles. The point of the triangle points toward the player, representing how the games and online content were to be player-focused. From the console, straight to the player. But then the start button on the controller points towards the Dreamcast. That represents how, in response, the players reach out and connect with the console."

Credit: Sega Retro

When you and your team were designing the Dreamcast's controller, what were the most important features or aspects that you knew it had to include? It is well known that the Dreamcast controller shares some design similarities to the Saturn's 3D Control Pad, which you also worked on. How much did that controller inspire the Dreamcast's controller?

When we were developing the Saturn 3D Controller, that was the first time we had ever tried to design an analog-input controller. We looked at how we could best make an analog controller, and spent a lot of time working on the basic design, control methods, layouts, and all the associated design questions.

We also looked into all kinds of additional features; stuff like integrated displays, paddle wheel controls, mouse input, motion sensing, infrared, rumble, haptics, voice recognition... many different things. Most of these features proved too costly to have natively on the Saturn 3D pad, but we made sure to design the controller to include an expansion port so those features could be added later.

We had actually planned out a motion sensor and vibration pack, and even made a prototype. We made sure that the controller's cord ran out of the back, since anything to do with motion sensors that you would have to tilt or shake around would be harder to use with the cord coming out of the front of the controller. 

For the analog inputs, we felt it was essential to use a sensor that wouldn't experience any change in the analog signal from drift or wear. To accomplish that, we used "Hall" elements. We knew we definitely didn’t want resistive sensors. We didn’t add them for the sake of having a selling point, we just saw it as the obvious choice. It wasn’t until 2020 that we saw other companies start making controllers with those same Hall elements. I guess the market finally caught up to the Sega 3D Control Pad, and it only took 25 years.

When it came to the Dreamcast controller, we applied a lot of what we had learned from the Saturn 3D pad.

As I mentioned, the idea behind the Dreamcast ecosystem was “play and communication.” The console could go online, but the concept extended beyond just that. There were also four controller ports, so you could have four people at once all playing together. Then, we decided we would try putting an individual display on each controller. We had originally conceived it as something like a personal monitor for each player for sports games, with individual displays. The VMU was our solution.

Connecting the VMUs directly to the console would have meant we would have to add four pretty big ports for four players’ VMUs, which wasn’t a great solution from either a cost or design standpoint. So, we decided to explore plugging the VMUs into the controllers instead. Every VMU would be like a memory pack, but with an LCD screen and control buttons; it could have its own independent apps, and when it was plugged into the controller, the screen would serve as an additional display.

Away from the controller, you could connect VMUs together to swap data with your friends, or play games against each other. That was another facet of the “communication” concept. For us on the peripherals team, we figured it wasn’t likely that every kid would have an internet connection they could use to play online, so we focused on ways we could build “play and communication” through controllers and accessories.

We also planned out a built-in gyro sensor, so you could control games by moving the controller, as well as built-in vibration, and a built-in light gun pointing device. It turned out to be too expensive to implement those features natively, so we decided to build two expansion slots into the controller. That would leave room for us to release expansion units after the fact. We expected one slot would usually be occupied by the VMU, so we needed to have one more for other expansions.

The most important decision made regarding the controller was to have memory units connect to it instead of the console. We designed the VMUs for that purpose.

The controllers themselves were developed to work with an interface device [MapleBus] that could also support VMUs and any expansion packs. MapleBus proved essential, as it had the kind of scalability we needed.

For the expansion slots, we had to think about what sort of functionality we would need in the future. For instance, if we put out a rumble pack, the vibrations from that accessory would travel down to the slot and the connector. That’s not necessarily healthy for the components, and we expected these to be used long-term. So, we had to come up with a design for the connectors that would be durable and reliable.

The analog input was also much more advanced than the 3D Control Pad. We improved the precision, and allowed wider strokes. At the same time, the units could be made smaller, and needed less space to install internally.

I really would have liked to have seen the gyros, vibration, and wireless pointing built-in on the controller, but it just would’ve been too expensive.

The original US patent for the VMU. Credit: Sega Retro

An interview with David Perkinson - Producer of NFL 2K and World Series Baseball on the Sega Dreamcast

Before 2K Sports, It Was Simply: Sega Sports.

Some of us like to think that science is apolitical. We like to imagine that global, collaborating scientists choose to ignore the lines in our Apple or Google Maps that trace the boundaries of sovereign nations all in the name of research. And sometimes we are right.

It follows then that the inception of Sega Sports' World Series Baseball on the Sega Dreamcast is a story of in-house rivals sharing ideas across miles of oceans. This was possible partly because game design is its own science; its own language — not limited by geopolitical or even cultural constructs. Perhaps it is no wonder then that SEGA of America and Sega of Japan shared Sega Dreamcast technology that would become the foundation to iconic SEGA Sports game franchises.

Before the corruption of 2K Sports as we now know it, it was Sega Sports. I spoke with former Sega Sports producer David Perkinson (World Series Baseball, NFL 2K, Heavy Rain) to discuss how Sega Sports was shaped in its defining Dreamcast era.

Credit: Sega Retro

Steven Montani: How did you end up at Sega?

David Perkinson: Yeah, that’s a good question! I graduated from college in the Spring of ’93. I went to school in Ohio, and my sister and her husband lived in San Francisco. My sister had been doing some work at the time with kind of a small, wannabe-publisher, and they had a few games they were working on. At the time, CES was the big gameshow pre-E3. At the time, CES was in Chicago, and I was in Ohio and they wanted somebody to work the booth. I did some work for this company, and I was not being asked for too much. I helped people play, rebooted systems, and handed out pamphlets. CES ended and they asked me if I wanted to come work for them in the Bay Area for the summer. So I did. I flew out there and I began working for them without any real defined terms. Neither party knew if it would be a long-term thing, short-term thing or whatever. I worked there a couple of months at the time, sending reviewable builds out to media people and general stuff around the office. I just graduated from college and my friends had graduated from college and it was going to be our last summer together so I decided I was going to head back home. I left that gig. And then committed myself to moving back to the Bay Area. My sister was there. I had an easy in. I drove from Ohio, got to the Bay Area on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.

I saw an ad in the paper that said: “growing software publisher needs testers.“ It did not say who it was. Since I just had done that, I decided to apply. Applied on Monday. Got the job on Tuesday. And then I was around Sega in different incarnations, always working on Sega stuff, for about ten years. I started out in [quality assurance], spent maybe about a year in QA, and then moved into production. I always had an affinity for the sports stuff, so I began working on the Genesis sports stuff. That transitioned into 32X and the Saturn, and then into Dreamcast, and ultimately into publishing Sega Sports or ESPN video games even, developed by Sega and Visual Concepts for other platforms.

My role kind of increased. I was assistant producer, associate producer, producer, and then doing all kinds of stuff. Like taking on projects from Sega of Japan, working with developers in the United States on stuff from scratch. Almost all of it in the sports realm.
NFL's Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993 - one of the earliest games David worked on as a tester.

Did you have a passion for sports beforehand, before entering the game industry? Or did it develop while you were there?

I played an embarrassing amount of Techmo Bowl in college. Blades of Steel, Double Dribble on Nintendo Entertainment System was kind of a fun one. It had that hook shot from the corner that was kind of a bug that the shot was never missed. I was always a huge sports fan growing up — it was a passion of mine and so I kind of fell into it naturally. When I got on sports games working in QA, I just had a good connection with them and built really good working connections with the production teams on the SEGA side, and developers on development side.

So that was an MBA of sorts in production, in game development, and in publishing during your time there…

Yeah! One of the great things about it was that the group of people working there — it was a really eclectic group of people, a lot of whom got their start at the same time as I did, who were still in there doing really cool stuff. They accomplished great things in games, or whether they moved into other areas of software development. We had writers, actors, musicians, just the gambit of creative people that worked there. We were kind of like-minded. I consider myself incredibly fortunate, right place at the right time.

That’s one part of it. The other part of it that made it so interesting and kind of challenging — every hardware generation, the rules completely changed. The expectations would change. The technology would change. The things you had to work on and think about and the tools used to develop the games and the complexity and the visual improvement — all of it was constantly evolving. You could always apply lessons before of making successful products, but there was a fair amount of improvisation in every hardware generation. You really had to think quickly and problem solve, and find a way to execute the best product given the constraints. Super-fun.

That is in line with some of the documentaries I’ve seen on SEGA. Where SEGA had been considered, maybe back in those days, like how we'd see modern indie studios — an eclectic personality to the entire studio. People were not afraid to take risks, explore avenues with their creativity and mess with different mediums mixing different disciplines.

Even outside of the sports stuff, you had all of types of creativity coming from SEGA of Japan. Just legendary designers making incredibly famous products. There was a fearlessness and spirit of innovation that led them to take risks. Even if the games did not blow out sales, those innovations would drive something else that would show up in some other product that could make that successful and shine. At SEGA of America, even outside of the sports world. I think of stuff like Ecco the Dolphin. Incredibly creative game.