Horror Double Whammy: New Survival Horror Dreamcast Indie Title and Alone in the Dark Ports Incoming

You can never have too many horror games on the Sega Dreamcast. Of course, it already boasts some exceptionally terrifying titles, from survival horror classics like the Resident Evil series to lightgun shootfests like The House of the Dead 2, but there’s always room for more. Well, I’m happy to report that the Dreamcast’s horror library is about to get just that little bit plumper, with these two fresh news bites I have to share today. So, picture a gothic Ryo Hazuki as I say: "let’s get spooky."

I couldn't find a goth Ryo on Google Images, so here's Richmond instead.

Brand new survival horror indie title in the works from JoshProd!

Not much is known about this project yet, but the concept alone has the horror heads in the Junkyard team rocking back and forth with manic glee. A brand-new, fully fledged horror title is something the Dreamcast’s indie and homebrew scene has been missing, with Wolfenstein total conversion mod Witching Hour standing as the (sort of) lone torchbearer for a while now.

On Saturday, Philippe of JoshProd announced that development had started on a brand-new, currently unnamed "3D survival horror game", which will release exclusively on the Dreamcast. It will feature fixed camera angles, as is traditional survival horror fare.

It’s refreshing to learn that this title will be developed from the ground up specifically for the console, especially since JoshProd and their publishing arm PixelHeart have typically focused on porting existing titles over the years, to varied reception.

JoshProd hasn't shared any gameplay screenshots or artwork, just the image you see above of a very dusty Dreamcast. If yours looks like this, perhaps it's time to play it more. Maybe play this upcoming JoshProd horror game on it? We've been informed by Philippe that we'll hear more about this project in the summer, so keep your eyes peeled.

Alone in the Dark ports coming to Dreamcast — Preview build available

"The Dreamcast already has Alone in the Dark!" I hear you cry. And you’d be right. Infogrames' Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, the Dreamcast’s sole entry in the series, is a great game (and especially lovely visually), but soon, you’ll be able to play three more Alone in the Dark entries alongside it on the system. Don't worry, I'm not talking about the absolutely abysmal 2008 game (although that would be quite an impressive feat technically), but instead the very first —and highly influential— Alone in the Dark, its two sequels, as well as the short promotional game Jack in the Dark. 

After over a decade in the oven, developer Corbin (aka Corbachu) of Isotope Softworks has released a Dreamcast preview build of "Dream in the Dark", which is a modern, hardware-accurate source port of the original Alone in the Dark trilogy's engine. It is a complete rewrite of the Free in the Dark engine, and features a number of bells and whistles that my simple brain doesn't quite understand, but you can read all of the technical fine print in Corbin's announcement post over on the DCEmulation forums.

This newly released preview build (which you can download here) includes the demo versions of the first and second game, along with Jack in the Dark as a bootable CDI which you can burn to a CD-R or run on an emulator. An Alone in the Dark 3 demo is missing from this build as that game is not fully implemented yet.

Speaking of development, Corbin mentioned at the end of the announcement that this release functions as an apology for "past problems shipping games", most likely referring to the previously announced —but still unreleased— Dreamcast titles SLaVE and Hypertension. The post was then signed off with "this is far from the only major announcements we have for this year"... Could 2026 finally be the year we hear more about these two titles? Well, watch this space, I guess.

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It sounds like 2026 could be be a good year for fans of the Dreamcast and survival horror. Leave an "eeeeeeek" in the comments if you can hardly contain your excitement.