As I bid 2025 farewell to the tune of the traditional New Year's Eve song Auld Lang Syne, I contemplated the lyrics and their theme about leaving things in the past. I promptly disregarded that message and continued to write for a blog about a console that was discontinued 24 years ago.
But that idea of "farewells" sparked an idea — one that taps into a new collecting obsession I fell into in 2025. You see, I developed a bit of a bug for tracking down old Dreamcast magazines, specifically ones that were published in the UK. Although I was able to frequently play the Sega Dreamcast during its commercial heyday round a friend's house, I was probably too young for the magazines of the time to cross my radar, and even if they had, I probably would've been too busy reading the Beano and Dandy to care.
Anyhow, last year I managed to pick up several bundles of assorted issues of Official Dreamcast Magazine, Dreamcast Magazine (the unofficial one), and DC-UK. I quickly noticed a common thread with these lots, however. While I did manage to acquire some earlier issues in them, the majority consisted of each magazine's final entries. It seemed that the sellers were particularly keen to offload these last issues — and upon reading them, it was easy to see why.
As the death knell rang for the Dreamcast, there was a clear scramble from these magazines to reassure their readers that the console still had plenty of epic games on the horizon. As the issues wore on, however, the cracks began to show. The number of games reviewed in each issue dwindled, features became steadily less inspired, and page counts shrank. In the most egregious cases, past reviews were simply reprinted in a desperate attempt to pad out pages.
Of course, this strange editorial limbo couldn't last forever, and eventually each of these magazines would come to accept that the Dreamcast’s fate was a doomed one, and sail off into the sunset — most of them rather unceremoniously. Next issues were promised, but never came. Only one publication, Paragon Publishing's unofficial Dreamcast Magazine, managed to last long enough to earn itself the privilege of a proper send-off.
In what I hope to be an ongoing series, I will be taking a look at how each of the UK's Dreamcast magazines said their farewells —or didn’t— with an additional goal of uncovering what went wrong behind the scenes for those that ended prematurely. You know we love solving a mystery here at the Junkyard.
To start off, I'll be taking a look at Dennis Publishing's officially licensed offering, Official Dreamcast Magazine. Its final issue, issue 21, was released in June 2001.
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| My scan! |
The issue hit newsstands sporting a rather fitting PAL-blue cover featuring Sega’s iconic spiky mascot. Like the rest of the magazine, the cover is clean as hell — and perfectly timed to coincide with the mag’s review of Sonic Adventure 2. Readers would have also found Volume 22 of the Dream On demo disc adorning this issue's cover, which was responsible for its premium £4.99 price tag.
Depending on where you were in your Dreamcast journey, this demo disc may have proved to be either a blessing, or slightly disappointing. Rather than including playable previews of the latest upcoming titles, the 22nd instalment of Dream On served as a "best-of" compilation, packing in demos for nine Dreamcast bangers. These included Jet Set Radio, Metropolis Street Racer, Sonic Adventure, Virtua Tennis, Space Channel 5, Toy Commander, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, Ready 2 Rumble, and Ultimate Fighting Championship. Seeing as all nine of these games were voted into our Top 200 Dreamcast games list, with the majority of them ranking inside the top 30, it was a well-curated selection, and perhaps well-timed for any new Dreamcast adopters who had picked up the console following its price drop to £99.99 earlier that year. If you were a long-time ODM reader, though, you may well have played a fair few of these titles already thanks to the magazine’s high review scores, and were perhaps instead expecting demos for the brand-new Sonic Adventure 2 or Crazy Taxi 2. If that were the case, you might have been left feeling a bit miffed.
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| Credit: Chromagi |
The magazine's editor, Warren Chrismas, made the reasoning for this demo selection clear in his note at the front of the issue. While he began by calling out the "gloom merchants" for insisting the Dreamcast was dead and buried months before —citing the high quality of both Sonic Adventure 2 and Crazy Taxi 2 as a reason for fans of the console to remain excited— this positive tone was soon contradicted by the sobering reality of Sega's situation.
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| From here onwards, all magazine scans are credit of Sega Retro, unless stated otherwise. |
Referencing the results of a reader survey that went out in issue 18, Warren jovially commented on the video game preferences of ODM’s (mostly male, apparently) reader base and their affection for the mag, before serving them with the bad news (I believe this is what conversation experts commonly refer to as the “shit sandwich” technique).
"Fourteen percent of you were 'unsure' whether you'd buy ODM without a demo disc for a lower price... and we'll soon be putting this to the test! With few playable demos available, Sega Europe can no longer produce cover discs to the standard you and I expect. As such, this month's disc is the last [Dream On] you'll see taped to the cover of ODM, although we haven't ruled out the possibility of special one-off discs in the future. In fact there may be one with our next issue, so watch out for that."
Basically, Sega weren't releasing Dreamcast games frequently enough to fill up Dream On discs each month, so Volume 22 was to potentially be the last. And of course, without a flashy GD-ROM taped to the front to entice readers, the magazine's cover price would also have to be lowered.
But it wasn't just discs that Warren and his team were worried about filling, it was pages too. Which brings us onto his next big announcement: ODM was to change to a bi-monthly publication schedule.
“We don't wish to produce weak issues with little news and just a few reviews, so we'll be adapting a flexible release schedule from now on with the next issue of ODM due to appear at your local newsagents (or through your letterbox) in two months' time. Sure, you'll have to wait twice as long as normal for the next issue but, if you look at it another way, you'll also get two months' worth of news, previews, reviews and happenings squeezed into one. Not such a bad deal, eh? So we hope to see you on Thursday 23 August…”
Sounds reasonable, really. It is definitely commendable that they were willing to contemplate sacrificing release frequency in order to prioritise quality. Just looking through issue 21, it was clear that the Dreamcast’s continued decline was starting to take its toll. Previous ODM issues had tended to average around 120 to 130 pages, whereas issue 21 weighed in at just 106.
While the features were decent, with plenty of ODM’s typical lifestyle-centric content still present —such as coverage of the latest gadgets, an interview with Noodles from The Offspring about Crazy Taxi 2, and the drinking-and-thinking chat where the ODM team would drink and discuss games— only six new games were reviewed in this issue. In comparison, the previous December's issue saw a whopping 15 rated. Not exactly reassuring for a two-year-old system that supposedly had "plenty more to come".
The new change to a bi-monthly publication was reflected at the bottom of every page.
Warren ended his run of news bites about how the mag would be adapting with a touch of optimism, listing some exciting upcoming Dreamcast games. See how many you can spot that never actually came out on the console. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.
Speaking of upcoming releases, the news section confirmed that several new Dreamcast titles —including Alien Front Online, Bomberman Online, Ooga Booga, and Sega Bass Fishing 2— had been unveiled at E3 that year. However, there were already concerns about whether any of them would actually make it to Europe, and those doubts would later prove well-founded. Thankfully, Phantasy Star Online's Ver. 2 update was still looking likely for a European release, and Virtua Tennis 2 was also unveiled. Ports of PC-juggernauts Black & White and Half-Life remained uncertain after a year of delays, and AM2’s Propeller Arena was also announced. Ultimately, those last three titles would never see an official release, though both Propeller Arena and Half-Life would later be leaked online, finally giving Dreamcast fans a chance to play them.
Headhunter, Outtrigger and Floigan Bros got big previews this month, while Crazy Taxi 2 and Spider-Man took home high review scores — along with Unreal Tournament, which still earned a very respectable eight despite online multiplayer being removed from its European release. The very average Resident Evil clone Evil Dead: Hail to the King landed a fitting five, while the absolute stinker Exhibition of Speed limped away with a two, with reviewer Steve Key calling it "one of the worst games we've had the misfortune to play." Ouch.
The biggest review of the month was, of course, Sonic Adventure 2, which spanned ten pages at the front of the issue, with plenty of cutaways covering the blue blur's history (with mention of the then upcoming Sonic Advance — the first Sonic game to release on a Nintendo system), as well as some of Adventure 2’s new features. There was also a page partly devoted to a nice letter from Yuji Naka addressed to the staff of Official Dreamcast Magazine, with a competition below to win a Sonic Swatch watch and the commemorative plaque from the Japan-exclusive Birthday Pack edition of Sonic Adventure 2... but not the game also included in that set. Maybe they were worried those lucky winners wouldn't have the means to play it on their PAL Dreamcasts. ODM generally steered clear of anything related to import gaming, while its contemporaries like DC-UK were reviewing any overseas releases they could get their mitts on, and even publishing guides on how to region-mod your Dreamcast. But I guess being the official magazine, ODM had to play by the rules. I can only imagine that in the eyes of Sega’s PR reps, import gaming was seen as a slippery slope toward piracy.
It's bizarre then, that this issue featured a four-page spread all about Bleem!, an unlicensed piece of software that allowed a selection of PlayStation games to run on the Dreamcast. Everything Bleem! was fully laid out in this article from Adam Phillips, who got the lowdown from coder David Herpolsheimer on how the software worked, the lawsuit from Sony, and even where readers could get themselves a copy — all complete with a smattering of screenshots of Gran Turismo 2 running through it.
In the Hot Seat this month was Neil Casini of Nottingham-based studio Clockwork Games, answering reader-submitted questions about the studio's most-recent title Vanishing Point. At the end of the article, ODM put out a call to readers to send in their questions for the US-based Heavy Iron Studios about Evil Dead: Hail to the King, with answers to appear in next month's issue. I can't wait to see what they have to say!
As for everything else, well, there was part two of ODM's walkthrough for Skies of Arcadia, as well as the usual review directory, reader letters, recommended websites, and the Dreamcast-themed crossword (possibly one of my favourite things in the whole issue, honestly). Then, finally, we reach the last ever page of the last ever issue of ODM, which featured a conversation with a guy who made $600 by selling rare in-game Phantasy Star Online items on eBay. He even shared some tips on how you could do it yourself! Top lad. Truly an entrepreneur of his time.
What happened to Official Dreamcast Magazine issue 22? — A Conversation with Ed Lomas
As you already know by now, there was no ODM issue 22. We never found out what the developers of Evil Dead had to say, but more importantly, we never got the solutions for the crossword from issue 21. ODM didn't often tease the contents of its next issues, so it's not immediately obvious what else issue 22 would have featured…
Well, I was actually able to successfully reach out to Warren Chrismas to try and get some insight into what the heck happened. It turns out that while the unreleased issue 22 was in fact worked on, it was not Warren who headed it up as lead editor. He would kindly put me in contact with Ed Lomas, who had served as deputy editor on previous issues of ODM, and stepped up to the role of lead editor as Warren left to launch Dennis Publishing's PlayNation magazine. Ed graciously shared as much as he could about the cancelled issue.
"[Warren] had moved off ODM to launch PlayNation magazine. I was Deputy Editor and it meant I got to be in charge finally! As I remember it, we'd got most of the magazine done when we were told it wouldn't be released — I was very proud to have put together a good magazine, and sad it never came out."
Ed's memory was understandably foggy when it came to what readers could have expected from issue 22, but he believes it would most likely have featured Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 on the cover, with an exclusive on it inside. He recalled interviewing Yuji Naka at Sega’s offices, leading him to think the issue may also have included an interview with him about PSO Ver. 2, as well as a preview of the game. He also suspects that Shenmue II would have appeared somewhere in the magazine, and that he probably would have been the one who wrote about it.
When it came to why Official Dreamcast Magazine was ultimately cancelled, Ed confirmed a suspicion I already held: it was the lack of demo disc that killed it.
"I remember the magazine going to every two months and I feel like there was some ongoing debate as to whether we'd be getting a demo from Sega or not. I think the news finally came that wasn't going to happen and [Dennis Publishing] decided it wasn't worth carrying on with the magazine. I got called into a meeting, told the magazine was ending and that I could join Warren on PlayNation or be given redundancy money. It was the start of the summer and more money than I'd ever had so I took the cash and ran!"
Elaborating further, Ed would reveal that the magazine was actually doing better than expected. But the absence of that pesky demo disc, combined with the PlayStation 2's popularity, would seal ODM's fate.
"Dennis were generally happy with the performance of ODM because they had originally budgeted for it to be much more expensive to produce than it ended up being. The first few issues had very expensive high-end fashion photography in them, but Warren and I weren't fans (neither were most readers!) and we were able to phase them out and use staff writer Dan Trent as our main photographer. As such, even though the magazine wasn't selling what they'd originally hoped for, it was turning out more profitable as it was cheaper to produce. But with PlayStation 2 clearly the more popular console and sales declining as game releases thinned out, Dennis deprioritised ODM and made a move for the PS2 market. The loss of the demo disc was the killing blow."
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| PlayNation Magazine. Credit: Magazines From the Past |
Also, if you were wondering whether the readers who entered that big Sonic competition in issue 21 ever got their prizes, what with ODM closing and all… well, the answer is complicated.
These weren’t the only things that seemed to go walkabout in the Dennis Publishing offices…
Poor Ed. He finally got his big moment as a lead editor, only for the issue he worked on to never see the light of day — and for his stuff to get pilfered in the process! Still, he would go on to have a very prosperous career in the publishing industry and beyond. Thank you for your work on Official Dreamcast Magazine, sir, and thanks for indulging this nerd’s curiosity.
Now, here's my somewhat janky approximation of what the cover of Official Dreamcast Magazine issue 22 might have looked like, based off Ed’s recollection…
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| Artist’s interpretation. |
The official announcement, and what happened to issue 22’s unused articles (update 8/02/2026)
Don’t worry, Official Dreamcast Magazine readers weren’t left in the dark about the fate of their favourite publication. At least, not those who had internet access, anyway. A month before what would've been issue 22's publication date of August 2001, Warren Chrismas would post an "unofficial" statement to a Google Group for UK Dreamcast fans (thanks to RJAY63 for making me aware.) Thankfully, these forums are still archived by Google —unlike many of the other products they've killed off over the years— so we can see exactly what he posted:
Warren would inform an inquisitive user replying to his announcement that he would be moving to work on the brand new PlayNation magazine, due out September 6th. “Just what the world needs — another bloody PlayStation magazine”, one user would retort sourly, while another would ask whether the Sonic competition prizes would still get sent out…
Next month, on the 15th of August, a user called MW_Jimmy posted in the same group, referencing a fragment of the official statement that would’ve been posted on ODM’s website, although this particular quote would only concern the next steps of the magazine’s staff.
So what about the rest of it? Unfortunately, while the 2001 Wayback Machine archives of ODM’s website go as far as September, they point to reviews and features that had already appeared in earlier ODM issues, and the most recent news posts I could find only went as far as early July — before even Warren would create his initial Google Groups post about the magazine’s closure.
The next available snapshots jump ahead to 2002, by which point the site had begun redirecting visitors to the domain of another of Dennis Publishing’s magazines at the time, Computer and Video Games, which matches up to Warren's previous comment about how long ODM's website would remain active.
Junkyard commenter dreamcastcollector noted that some of issue 22’s unused material would later be posted online as an “official ending,” just as Warren had claimed would happen in his Google Groups post. While the archives of ODM’s site were a dead end, I did notice that CVGM had uploaded a swathe of reviews from past ODM issues to its page — all on the 15th of August 2001 (coincidence?). I tried to track down coverage of games that would have been current around the time ODM issue 22 was due, hoping those reviews had also been archived there, but alas, I came up empty-handed.
For now, it may be fair to consider the issue 22 material that was posted online —at least until more surfaces— lost media.
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Do you remember picking up issue 21 of ODM on release? What was your reaction to the "greatest hits" demo selection? Did you enter that Sonic competition and actually receive your prize? Let us know on our socials or in the comments below!
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15 comments:
The mock cover for issue 22 looks great... Now to write it's contents!
Great investigation Lewis! Nice to hear from Ed Lomas too - I read his stuff across a range of mags growing up. Having spoken to several former Dreamcast magazine writers over the years, I'm pretty sure there are numerous unfinished 'next issue' magazines stored on forgotten hard drives that we'll never get to see. I still live in hope that Total Dreamcast will one day surface, although that's different because we never got the first issue, let alone the last! Great stuff :)
Let's do it, Lozz! Need you to go to Japan and talk to Yuji Naka about PSO Ver 2. He didn't end up going to prison in the end, so I imagine he'll be free for interviews
Great read Lewis, I remember at the time trying to find a copy of #22 in the shops and not understanding why I couldn't. Good to finally know why.
On a side note, if anyone has a spare copy of ODM 10 they want to sell me it would be appreciated 😉
That's really interesting to hear, Chris! I wonder if they put anything anywhere to explain that the magazine had ceased publication. I did skim the Internet Archive but most of the records from around then are garbled because Dennis decided to make all their websites flash-based apparently.
Today I just took delivery of some cello bags to put my ODM collection in, took a while to work out and find the correct size. Managed to find cello bags for OSSM easier than these.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/473330565/12-x-9-240mm-x-305mm-30mm-self-seal-flap?ref=share_v4_lx
Now off to find ones for DC-UK which changed sizes part way through.
Didn't they post some of the magazine on the web? One mag at the time definitely published some stuff that was to have been in the abruptly cancelled next issue.
It was definitely a UK Dreamcast magazine the next issue was abruptly cancelled, and some of the contents were posted online. Either the editor or another staff member posted it as an official ending. I thought it was either official Dreamcast magazine or maybe DC UK? Shouldn't be too hard to find out
Great article & demo disks were always more challenging for Sega consoles it seems leading to repeated titles & compilations etc
I still love to flick through old magazines.
While it's not about this magazine & I'm sure you'll cover it in this series but from my vague memories I rather liked the last of Dreamcast Magazine (issue 34 I believe) I always loved the way they ended that. They had a multipage article that covered pretty much the whole of the Dreamcast's life including a box out called "End of an Era" and in the editorial included something like: "...and a message to Sony, we'll buy your consoles & play Sega games on them but we'll never ever like you" or something like that :-)
While most of the rest of the mag was re-printed reviews of existing games & a large tips section they also had multi page reviews of the late releases like Conflict Zone, Heavy Metal GeoMatrix, Cannon Spike & Freestyle Scooter.
So it was a pretty epic way to go out!
Thanks for your comment!
I have that final issue of Dreamcast Magazine (the unofficial one), and I LOVE that cover. It really feels like a true send off for the console.
This ODM article was actually part of a much larger one that explored the final issue of each of the UK’s DC magazines, but it got too big, so I’ve split it up. I did go through that DCM issue and touch on a lot of similar points, so hopefully you’ll get to see it sometime in the future. 🙂
I shall look forward to it. Yup - the cover for th issue was brilliant and as you say a proper send off!
Warren posted the following on uk.games.video.dreamcast newsgroup (archived by Google Groups) on 25 July 2001:
I'm sure there will be an official statement doing the rounds in a day or two but in the meantime I thought I should let you know (unofficially) that Dennis Publishing closed Official Dreamcast Magazine last Friday [20 July 2001]. There will be no further issues.
While sales held up well in the first few months of the year (our final ABC will be around 49k I believe), the figures have understandably fallen since Sega announced that it was to cease producing and marketing the Dreamcast.
Until last week we all hoped - and expected - to continue writing and publishing ODM until the last of the big DC games comes out at the end of the year/early next year.
Unfortunately, sales of the current issue (July/August, #21) have been very poor compared with previous issues, suggesting that interest in Dreamcast - or, at least, ODM - is dwindling very fast. (The 'best of' Dream On
compilation won't have helped but let's not go there).
The management took many other factors into account when deciding to close the publication, including the fact that Sega could no longer provide cover discs or, significantly, proper editorial support.
Some of the content from what would have been ODM #22 will, I believe, be posted on the magazine's website (www.dreamcastmag.co.uk) over the next couple of weeks. And the website will remain live for the foreseeable future
- probably into 2002.
So that's it.
I'll still be reading UVGD in the future but it's goodbye for now. Thanks for your support and interest (except the Geordie tw**, obviously).
Take it easy,
Warren
Thanks RJAY63 and dreamcastcollector. I’ve updated the article with some more information I was able to piece together.
Thank you Lewis. A poster on said newsgroup states the ODM website transferred to C&VG circa October 2001. I remember when C&VG's website was still active, it contained older features that originated from ODM (ie MSR - How Do They Do That?)
Does this help? https://web.archive.org/web/20010712090325/http://www.dreamcastmag.co.uk/gbligh/newfeatures/printfeat.php3?id=55&page=2&obcount=0
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