The Tragic Fate of DC-UK Magazine and Its Unreleased Issue 21 — Four Lost Reviews Found!

These days, typing "DC-UK" into your search engine of choice will lead you to the UK web stores for an American comic giant, a classic skate shoe brand, or even a company that makes delightful wooden duck sculptures. But for British Dreamcast fans of a certain age, those four letters still spark memories of one of the best unofficial magazines to ever cover Sega's final console. DC-UK was Future Publishing's cheeky, offbeat stab at covering the Dreamcast, and it struck the perfect balance between solid game coverage and creative features, without ever taking itself too seriously.

In 2026, Future stands as one of the few remaining large-scale UK magazine publishers, having gobbled up many of its competitors over the past decade. But back at the turn of the millennium, many more publishing houses were vying for a slice of the magazine market, and for a time, a magazine dedicated to Sega's exciting new Dreamcast console seemed like a fair punt. We previously had the pleasure of chatting about the creation of DC-UK with its first editor, Caspar Field, on our podcast, but today we're fast-forwarding to the end of its run.

How DC-UK introduced itself in its debut issue.

Echoing the fate of the console it was created to celebrate, DC-UK would end not with a bang, but with a whimper. Just like Dennis Publishing's Official Dreamcast Magazine, DC-UK would be killed off seemingly overnight — no final farewell within its pages, and a promised next issue that would never materialise. 

If you, like me, believe a magazine as great as DC-UK deserved a more dignified send off, then read on, because I've found out why it didn't get one. I even spoke with three former members of the DC-UK editorial team, whose insights help shed light on the circumstances behind the mag's untimely end. And, as you may have noticed from the title of this article, I've also managed to recover and preserve four unreleased reviews that were originally intended to appear in DC-UK's cancelled issue 21... Pretty exciting, right? It only took 25 years for them to see the light of day!

But before we get into all that, let's first see how DC-UK bowed out. The magazine's final issue, issue 20, hit shelves on the 15th of February 2001...

All scans in this article were sourced from Sega Retro.

The front cover of what would turn out to be DC-UK’s final issue would certainly look good, but the game featured so prominently was an unremarkable one: Fighting Vipers 2, the often-forgotten sequel to a Sega Saturn fighting staple. Considering the online multiplayer-RPG phenomenon that was Phantasy Star Online was also getting a review inside, you'd think that might have gotten pride of place over fiery helmet guy (or whatever he's called) from Fighting Vipers, but it was instead demoted to a secondary coverline just below it. With Official Dreamcast Magazine running a big PSO cover that same month (issue 17) and promoting its own review as "the first in the UK", it appeared that DC-UK's response was to counter by securing a UK-first review for Fighting Vipers 2 instead.

The editor for the issue was Lee Hart, as long-time editor Keith Stuart —who'd been in the role since issue seven— had moved on to greener pastures (although he did provide some freelance writing for this issue). And greener pastures they were, as Lee's first port of call as the new editor of DC-UK was to announce that Sega was to become a third-party developer.

Despite the change of editor, and a reduced page count (100 pages, down from around 130 pages at the magazine's peak), issue 20 of DC-UK was still a decent read, although the kind of off-the-wall features and cutaways the mag had become known for were largely absent. Where were Nostradamus' Dreamcast predictions? The hungover fishing trips? Instead, readers got four pages at the front of the issue dedicated to Toy Commander developer No Cliché's then-upcoming Agartha — and that game didn't even release! Surely that space would've been better filled with a spread showcasing photos of the DC-UK team's body parts? (That was actually a genuine reoccurring DC-UK feature. I'm not being weird!)

All jokes aside, the Agartha feature is certainly interesting, and offered a staggering amount of behind-the-scenes content considering the piece's short page count, including screenshots, concept sketches, work-in-progress renders, and a conversation with former head of No Cliché, Frédérick Raynal. Reading it in 2026 feels somewhat surreal, knowing what ultimately would (or wouldn't) become of the game.

Being that the issue released in February of 2001, there were still enough upcoming releases on the horizon to give worried Dreamcast fans reason to keep the faith. Previews this month included Sega heavy-hitters Daytona USA 2001 and Skies of Arcadia, alongside a number of titles that would ultimately end up as Japanese and US imports for us here in old Blighty. The Last Blade 2 and Giga Wing 2 promised niche thrills for arcade connoisseurs, while The Typing of the Dead and Illbleed lay in wait to deliver their own uniquely quirky brands of horror.

Perhaps less notable, but still previewed, were Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear and Evil Dead: Hail to the King, the latter of which received some early criticism for a number of reasons. "With any luck, the right snips and tucks should give Evil Dead the chance it deserves to become a fine horror adventure", the writer would say. Wishful thinking, perhaps? You only need check out my previous article in this series about Official Dreamcast Magazine issue 21 to see how well that one fared...

Next up were the "DC-Express" pages, which served as the magazine's news section. If it weren't for the opening report on the Dreamcast's impending discontinuation, you would've easily been forgiven for thinking the console was stronger than it ever was, as in an attempt to quell the fears of worried Dreamcast owners, the DC-UK team had managed to dig up enough news on upcoming games to fill a whopping twelve pages.

A release schedule was included of all the games expected to hit the Dreamcast between February 2001 and January 2002. Many titles listed earlier in the schedule would come out, but from August onwards, more and more would start going unreleased or turning up on other systems.

Of course Agartha has been mentioned already, but also to be eventually cancelled would be Virtua Golf, and Black and White. Propellerhead (Propeller Arena) was actually completed, but would never see a retail release, as Sega of America had concerns that its gameplay —which featured aerial dogfighting among skyscrapers— could draw similarities to the events of 9/11. The game would later be leaked onto the web, and its online multiplayer would finally be made playable in 2026 thanks to the hard work of dedicated fans.

Sega titles like Gunvalkyrie, The House of the Dead 3 and "Jet Set Radio 2" would turn up on Microsoft's Xbox, the latter as Jet Set Radio Future. Beach Spikers would make it onto the Nintendo GameCube. Shenmue II and "K Project" (the working title for Rez) would thankfully make it onto the Dreamcast in the West in PAL regions at least, while Space Channel 5: Part 2 and Alien Front Online would end up as yet more imports for UK Dreamcast fans.

The DC-UK team were especially excited about one game in particular: a football title reportedly in development by Smilebit, the studio behind Jet Set Radio. Their enthusiasm was further fuelled by the involvement of some former Konami coders who had worked on ISS Pro Evolution — a game they described as "arguably the greatest football game ever." The eventual result of this star-studded collaboration? 90 Minutes: Sega Championship Football, which was the total opposite. Hope you weren't too disappointed, lads.

Just left of the release schedule was a report that a "re-work" of what is —in my opinion— the best Saturn game, NiGHTS into Dreams, was in development for Dreamcast by Sonic Team. There was information circulating at the time of a title called Air NiGHTS being in production for Dreamcast, which would have utilised a unique motion-powered controller (a concept later revisited in NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams for the Wii). However, it is more likely that this re-work was actually what would later become the Japan-exclusive enhanced remake released for PlayStation 2 in 2008, as they mentioned how it was to also include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, which that remake did.

On the next page, screenshots of the opening level of Sonic Adventure 2 were showcased, taken from the Sonic Adventure 2: The Trial demo that was bundled with a Japanese copy of Phantasy Star Online the DC-UK team had got their mitts on. New Shenmue II screenshots were featured opposite. "Wait 'till you see this in motion. The visuals are absolutely stunning." They weren't wrong.

Deeper into the DC-Express pages, titles like Spider-Man, NBA Hoopz, and Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern made their first appearances, alongside news that Mega Drive/Genesis classics were heading to the Dreamcast via the Sega Smash Pack, though it would ultimately never receive a European release (I'm noticing a trend here...) Given the less-than-stellar quality of its emulation, perhaps that was a blessing, although Virtua Cop 2 and Sega Swirl were definitely worthy additions to the collection. In other news, Heavy Metal Geomatrix was on the way from Capcom, while rumours were afoot about a new Shinobi game being in development from United Game Artists (it would later release on the PlayStation 2, developed by Overworks). In some less positive news, confirmation had reached DC-UK that two titles had been cancelled: a port of Driver 2 and the Star Wars "kart racer" Super Bombad Racing. Super Bombad Racing would later appear on the PlayStation 2, and frankly, it can keep it.

One of the more interesting bits of news in this section would concern Sega of America's rejection of a pitch for a 3D Streets of Rage 4. Word on the streets was that they felt the genre was "outdated", so the website Gamer Web were working to gather names so they could petition Sega to rethink their silliness. If you're curious as to what a 3D Streets Of Rage game could've looked like on the Dreamcast, footage of the rejected pitch can be viewed online.

Dave 2000 would make his usual appearance in this section. In this month's column, the anonymous "man on the inside" was ragging on the PlayStation 2 again with his usual dry, cutting wit, likening it to a "boring old digestive with crumbling edges". Come to think of it, has anyone ever attempted to unmask Dave 2000's real identity? I'd do it myself, but I'm afraid I'd put in all that effort only to discover he's just Dreamcast Junkyard founder, Tom Charnock.

Moving onto the review section, nine new games would be put through their paces. Sega's online opus Phantasy Star Online would secure itself a perfect ten out of ten, complete with an interview with Yuji Naka for good measure. Meanwhile, Fighting Vipers 2 would fall short of fully justifying its place as that issue's cover star with a much less substantial seven. While it would receive praise for its "faultless" gameplay from reviewer Neil "Maximus" Randall, he would also criticise it for its lack of innovation over its Saturn predecessor.

Edging out Fighting Vipers 2 by one point in the brawler department was Capcom's Project Justice: Rival Schools 2. Meanwhile, European Super League somehow managed to commit multiple fouls yet still walk away with a rather generous six. Ref!

The underrated Starlancer would bag itself a well-deserved eight, while Speed Devils: Online would be cited as "the best online racing title Dreamcast has to offer" while also not managing to scrape more than a six. A case of "so close, yet so far" for fans of online Dreamcast racers, it seems. Let us know in the comments section below which Dreamcast online racer you think is better.

At the lower end, Championship Surfer, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and Aqua GT would get the biggest beatings, landing scores of five, four, and three respectively. I'm sure Tom would agree that European Super League should've joined them in the sin bin.

DC-UK even squeezed in a single import review of Arc System Works' excellent Guilty Gear X. Unlike Official Dreamcast Magazine, which refrained from reviewing imports altogether, this was a practice DC-UK proudly embraced. The game would score a nine, earning itself the honour —at least in this particular issue's pages— of being the best fighter to pick up in February 2001. (Note: if you've managed to time travel from 2001 and are reading this — get Project Justice instead, your older self will thank you for the wise investment.)

There were some handy guides for Tomb Raider Chronicles and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 included in the issue, but only the first part of each. Of course, this was a ploy to make you pick up the next issue, although if you were waiting for DC-UK to tell you how to get to the Bullring on Tony Hawk 2, I sincerely hope you were able to figure that out for yourself (spoiler alert). These guides were followed by a nice helping of cheats and tips, and then the obligatory letters section (known as "D-Mail"). One reader in particular had written in to thank the magazine for convincing him —along with some encouragement from his girlfriend— to buy a Dreamcast, despite originally thinking about picking up a PS2. Hope you married her, mate.

A page over from the letters was the Q&A segment, which was also where "Science Officer Maximus" (there’s Neil Randall again!) could be found, triaging various technical quibbles from readers. DC-UK was known for featuring its staff prominently within its pages, with the main Q&A section being headed up for a time by former co-editor Esther Woodman under her "Auntie Esther" persona. This month, Science Officer Maximus responded to a frustrated reader whose Dreamcast was affected by an irritating problem where it would randomly reset during gameplay. In step-by-step detail, he explained that realigning the pins on the power supply unit inside would improve contact and resolve the issue. It's fascinating to see that this annoying quirk —which is still commonly discussed across online communities today— was already affecting consoles that were no more than a year old (in the reader's case!)

DC-UK's next issue —issue 21— would be advertised towards the back of the mag, and was expected to hit newsstands on the 14th of March, with its main draw being a review of the epic Skies of Arcadia, along with news on Sonic Adventure 2, Shenmue II and Daytona USA 2001. Can't wait!

On the final page was that month's DC-UK team diary, where brand-new editor Lee Hart would give readers a peek behind the curtain at the various antics around the office. He would discuss securing the "exclusive" Fighting Vipers 2 review for the cover, how the team were able to hit their deadline despite being a member down (Keith Stuart), and walk readers through the mag's game-reviewing process.

The team receiving the news of the Dreamcast's cancellation was also touched upon in the diary, with a quote from this account highlighted below it in big letters: "We were about to feel the deep impact of a video game bombshell". An eerily appropriate quote to sit on the final page of the final ever issue of DC-UK. Well, it wasn’t technically the final page, if you count the Giant Killers advert on the back of the mag, and the ad that sat opposite the team diary for long-defunct online game retailer Fanz, promoting the chance to win a PlayStation 2. "This great console can also be used as a DVD player!" they would gleefully declare. Sigh…

The end of DC-UK — A Conversation with Keith Stuart, Neil Randall and Andrew Hind

Before DC-UK issue 21's advertised release date of March 14th would roll around, the website was updated to announce that the magazine had ceased publication. Sadly, the Wayback Machine doesn't have the post itself archived, so all we have to go off is the small preview that could be seen on the website’s front page, which read “Goodbye Folks! DC-UK bids you a fond farewell” (shown below).

It'd be easy to presume that DC-UK’s fate was decided solely in the same way most things associated with Sega’s flailing final console were. While our rose-tinted specs allow us to look back on 2001 as a year that brought some of the Dreamcast's most standout titles like Sonic Adventure 2, Phantasy Star Online, and Skies of Arcadia to the West, the reality for a publisher trying to keep a magazine about the console profitable was far less optimistic. Sega's decision to restructure as a third-party software developer was likely the clearest signal yet that it was time to throw in the towel.

But you see, DC-UK's publisher, Future, was doing some restructuring of its own. On the 16th of February, technology news website, The Register, would report that Future would be slashing "90 jobs from its publishing operation in Britain", with "a further 240 in the US and Europe" to also be cut. 20 magazines would be axed as a result, and among those listed would be our beloved DC-UK.

While I was unable to contact Lee Hart, who would have been the editor of DC-UK when the news broke (wherever you are, Lee, I hope you're doing well), I did manage to speak with three former members of the DC-UK team to get their perspectives on what happened. 

Keith Stuart, who ended his tenure as editor with issue 19, says this about the magazine’s closure:

"Sadly, [DC-UK's] sales figures were not sustainable; we just weren't selling enough issues every month to make it worthwhile, and with the PlayStation 2 selling so well, Future perhaps decided it would be better to re-focus its resources on PlayStation-focused magazines. I actually thought the mag might get a couple more months after I left, but that was not to be."

And Keith's suspicions were correct, it seems. On the 3rd of March, The Grocer would publish a quote from Mike Frey, Future's managing director at the time, who noted that despite the company's portfolio being reduced, its PlayStation 2 title had enjoyed a "strong start." As sad as it is to admit, I can only imagine that when it came to Future trimming their portfolio, a magazine like DC-UK —which covered a console that was already confirmed to be ending production— would likely have been one of the first on the chopping block if the publisher needed extra resources to redirect into coverage of Sony's new cash cow. On top of that, Future held the official PS2 license for its magazine, so ensuring its success would surely have been paramount, even if it came at the expense of its other publications. DC-UK really did feel the "deep impact" of that "video game bombshell", huh?

When the news of Future's layoffs hit news outlets like The Register, it was just a day after DC-UK's final issue would hit shelves. Meanwhile, work on issue 21 had already started. Keith outlines how the magazine's production timeline tended to work:

 "DC-UK started work on a new issue as soon as the previous one was finished. Often in fact, we would commission some articles and reviews early so that they were ready right at the beginning of a new issue — this way the art team would have something to design from day one."

The office where DC-UK was produced from issue 16 onwards. Yes, that is an S Club 7 poster.

Midway through production, however, all would grind to a halt. We've already mentioned Neil Randall, former staff writer for DC-UK — well, here's his recollection of the one fateful morning where everything would end for the mag:

"As the staff writer, I'd been battering through [preview and review] copy for [issue 21] and, if I recall correctly, we were fairly close to press. There may even have been covers. However, there'd been no official announcement from Future, until Sega killed the Dreamcast. Then, one morning, the team was greeted with letters on desks. Along with a couple of [teams from other mags that were being discontinued], we'd been summoned to a meeting with the publisher. He didn't even have the decency to be on time, but the upshot was our mags were dead, and that we'd all go into an Editorial Support Team (EST), which basically amounted to internal freelance. I remember Video Gamer had [finished their issue] – they were especially pissed-off, and someone begged the publisher to at least print the final copy. He was having none of it, though."

Neil admits he'd already had an inkling that the writing was on the wall for DC-UK...

"Strangely, I knew all this was coming. I'd invested in Future shares when they tumbled, and there was a lot of chat on various investment forums about company restructures, mag closures, layoffs, etc, for months. It was eerily accurate, and once Sega left the hardware market, it was game over."

Keith would kindly put me in contact with Andrew Hind, the designer for DC-UK, who would have been the one producing the layouts for issue 21's features, reviews, and previews. He recalls that the team would wrap up that intense morning in perhaps the most DC-UK way possible...

"Future Publishing was going through restructuring and several magazines closed on the same morning, most were told that we wouldn't be finishing the current issue. [...] I remember the DC-UK team went to the pub that morning we found out it was closing and I had a full English breakfast, a kind of farewell brunch."

An interesting titbit is that, on the morning these events were unfolding at Future's offices in Bath, staff at the Bournemouth-based Paragon Publishing —home to unofficial rival Dreamcast Magazine— were reportedly watching everything play out in real time via an online livestream of Future's offices, even witnessing staff packing the contents of their desks into boxes.

This detail comes from a Reddit user who claims to have worked for Dreamcast Magazine at the time. When I asked Neil about the live feed, he confirmed that something like it did exist, though he recalls it may have only been capturing Adrian Lawton, who was in charge of the online side of DC-UK.

Dreamcast Magazine's editor Simon Phillips would actually acknowledge DC-UK's closure in his editor's note at the beginning of issue 20. Although he didn't mention the magazine by name, his reference to it being "the only rival unofficial mag left" made it clear who he meant, since Dreamcast Monthly was already shut down by the time DC-UK ceased publication.

Beyond the events of that morning, designer Andrew Hind would land a job at PC Gamer, another of Future's publications, while Neil Randall would take a different path:

"Everyone in DC-UK moved to better gigs in and out of Future, while I remained in the office, like Milton. A couple of months later, I got offered voluntary redundancy. It was a stupidly good deal, and morale was in the gutter, so I vamoosed. Freelance kept me going for a few years, before I changed my focus."

Neil would eventually secure a more permanent position as news editor at Imagine Publishing's 360 magazine, where his editor would be non other than Dreamcast Magazine's Simon Phillips.

Despite the rather unceremonious end thrusted onto DC-UK from Future, everyone who I spoke to had nothing but positive things to say about the magazine and their time working on it. The hilarious features and team diaries in DC-UK always made it look like the staff were having an absolute blast producing issues, and this definitely seems to have been the case, for the most part.

Recalling his time with the magazine, Keith Stuart says the following:

"It was such a fun magazine to work on; a great team and amazing games. I had good contacts with the official US magazine and with Dreamcast Famitsu so we were able to punch above our weight as an unofficial mag."

Andrew was equally enthusiastic:

"I think DC-UK was my favourite team to work in, we were all great friends and the office was such a laugh. We were all young and excited to work on the mag and would all go out drinking together. We would hang out in the office in the evening and weekends, playing football games and chatting. It also helped that I was a lifelong Sega fan and it was one of my dream positions. I had actually applied to the Official Dreamcast Magazine before I started at Future. I loved the Mega Drive but my great passion was the Saturn and [Sega-AM2]."

This goes some way to explaining why Neil was understandably frustrated with the way DC-UK ended, and why he wishes it could have been granted a proper final issue.

"Ultimately, DC-UK suffered the same, ignominious fate as most other mags; no 'farewell', no 'thank you' to readers, just an Irish exit. It was supremely disappointing to all involved — bar the accountants. I get business decisions have to be dispassionate, but from an artistic standpoint, it's always rum. I know many people probably saw it as just another job, but it was a vocation for me, and I'll always lament the way DC-UK ended."

Us too, Neil. Us too.

From left to right: Lee Hart, Andrew Hind, Neil Randall and Keith Stuart.

Now, about that unused Issue 21 material...

The team had been working hard on issue 21 of DC-UK before it was cancelled, and Neil believes it may have been "fairly close to press." Here are some things readers could have expected to find within its pages…

While Andrew confirms that spreads he would have laid out for issue 21 back then are now sadly "lost to time", he did share an unused idea the team wanted to work on for the issue.

"I can remember we had an idea of making the Dreamcast swirl into the path of a board game like snakes and ladders for a feature, but never got to do it."

DC-UK did have a reoccurring feature in earlier issues of Dreamcast-themed Top Trumps, intended for you to cut out and play. Of course, we game and magazine collector nerds hate fun, and so I can't imagine many scissor blades freed those trumps from their horizontal prison. A Dreamcast board game you could play simply by laying the magazine out on a table would've been a neat idea, and would've kept your precious issue of DC-UK intact in the process. Sounds a lot cooler than playing Ludo with your sister, anyway.

I nicked this off Google Images, but it's a crude approximation of what the board game may have looked like.

Before I even started writing this article, Marc Jowett of SegaMags and The Gaming Newsagent had made me aware that Neil Randall had in fact written and completed four game reviews for DC-UK issue 21, those being for Ducati World, The Last Blade 2, Sonic Shuffle, and of course, Skies of Arcadia.

Well, it turns out Neil still had all four of these reviews saved on his computer! Marc would be the one to put me in touch with Neil, who was happy for The Dreamcast Junkyard to publish and preserve them online, as long as we got permission from Future Publishing first. Neil's concern was that Future may have retained copyright over these reviews, given that they were written by him while he was employed as a staff writer for DC-UK.

I can only imagine the poor souls manning Future's licensing department inbox were scratching their heads when our particularly unique request came in, and in the end, it took about a month to finally get a response. As the material Neil had written had never seen publication, the licensing team ended up going round the houses for a while trying to track down any records they had, only to come up empty handed. They would finally reply to say that if Neil was fine with us releasing the reviews, then they had no objections.

These four reviews were Neil's personal drafts, which he would've then passed to the production editor for subediting. The subedited text would then have been placed into the page layout, and Neil would have provided captions for any screenshots added alongside the review. The editor (Lee Hart) would have then read the piece in full and made any final edits. This process is a typical editorial workflow used in publishing, and Neil believes his reviews could have been at any stage along this journey when work on the issue was halted. If a true "final" version ever existed, he thinks it is likely now lost, along with the rest of the issue.

Explaining why he still had these drafts backed up after all this time, Neil says this:

"I always offloaded the contents of my work PC when I left jobs, 'case anything proved useful later — and, in this case, I was right. It's also a bit of digital hoarding/nostalgia. I like to look back on stuff."

If only more people thought like Neil, the Junkyard's love for uncovering lost media would be a heck of a lot easier!

While I of course encourage you to go and read each of Neil's reviews for yourself, I can't not touch on each of them a little here. Looking back through old issues of DC-UK, I've often found that the reviews tend to still align closely with modern consensus, and for the most part, Neil's do too.

This is perfectly demonstrated by perhaps the biggest review of the bunch: Skies of Arcadia. Overwork's criminally underrated (and under-ported) RPG masterpiece, and the big review that keen DC-UK readers were looking forward to reading in issue 21. I'm sure it isn't a surprise whatsoever that the game received a firm ten out of ten from Neil, a score which would have secured it the coveted "DC-UK Essential" accolade. He would also declare it the "daddy" of Dreamcast RPGs, dethroning Grandia II, which had earned itself a commendable nine out of ten in issue 19.

"Overworks has carved a mammoth quest that performs a symphony for the eye, the ear and the mind. But above all, it's a masterpiece."

Being part of such a popular franchise, Sonic Shuffle was always destined to have a target on its back, especially when its premise looked so good on paper. Mario Party but with Sonic and pals... what could possibly go wrong? Wait, that's Bubsy's line. Anyway, Shuffle received the critical kicking from Neil that I expected it to, and I don't blame him. While he bigged up its mini-games for being "riotous at times", he described the other 80% of the experience as "sheer boredom". Five out of ten.

In what would have been an import review for DC-UK, Neil showered The Last Blade 2's deep fighting mechanics with praise, but criticised its "low-resolution sprites and low-frame animations", especially when compared to other 2D Dreamcast fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom that had released just a year or so before. In the end, he gave it eight out of ten, a score that would have been a nine had the visuals been better. With an eight, the game may very well have bagged itself the "DC-UK Recommends" badge.

There is only one of Neil's reviews that doesn't exactly match up with the general consensus, that being for motorcycle racer Ducati World, which is often derided for being pretty shoddy, by members of the Junkyard team included! One of the most common complaints concerns the game's presentation, which does a poor job of hiding its PlayStation origins. Neil thought much the same in this regard, describing the graphics as "decidedly ropey" and the sound as "bog awful". Despite this, the gameplay still won him over. He hyped up the "wickedly fast" sense of speed, as well as the variety of modes on offer, which, ultimately resulted in Ducati World earning a seven out of ten. Had issue 21 of DC-UK been published, this score would've helped to bump up the game's average a little.

But my summaries could never do the real things justice, and so I encourage you to take the time to dive into the full reviews for yourself. Maybe imagine you've got a crisp copy of DC-UK issue 21 in your hands as you do so. Breathe in that new page smell... Too much? Yeah, fair enough. Anyway, before you do whatever you do, Neil felt it important to provide some context and set the scene about the time in which these reviews were written. Take it away, Neil.

"I landed a dream job on DC-UK in 2000 around issue 11. Aside from a three-week stint at Rapide Publishing (just as it closed) it was my first professional gig, and I'd been given a choice between this and Edge at my interview. Sega Boy was always going to pick DC-UK.  

I could barely write when I joined but swiftly upped my game to 'perfunctory' after reviewing tons of shooters, brawlers and racing games. I modded consoles, wrote a technical column, and trawled as many imports - and issues of Famitsu DC — as possible, in order to get some decent previews. It was a perfect fit.  

Spin on 25 years, and I discovered those four unpublished reviews were very much of their time, and supremely cringeworthy. I should really finish that time machine, so I can travel back and smack myself round the back of the head. But, despite that, I guarantee you they were all genuine and, in the case of Skies of Arcadia, the nascent introduction to a genre I still love today. Please enjoy with caution and forgiveness."

You can read Neil's reviews by clicking on the image below, which will link you to a PDF containing all four. The reviews have been preserved completely unaltered from how Neil sent them, so you will see some small formatting suggestions he left in for his editors way back in 2001, such as which words to italicise (indicated with double forward slashes), along with a missing strapline for Skies of Arcadia. After all these years, we finally have a piece (or pieces!) of DC-UK issue 21.

While these reviews would sadly go unprinted, parts of them would be salvaged and published elsewhere. Neil would also be given the chance to re-review one of the games again... many times, in fact!

"When [issue 21] got whacked, I'd already written reviews for Ducati World, Last Blade 2, Sonic Shuffle and Skies of Arcadia. And it was that last one that chafed the most, though: between the Dreamcast original and GameCube 'Legends' port, I reviewed it no less than eight times for Future. But the only one that never got published was the native one for the mag I actually worked on. An edited version turned up on Daily Radar, but it was still a massive bummer at the time. Fortunately, I went on to re-review the game when I was on SEGA Powered. It's a much better piece, so maybe it was all for the best."

The edited-down version of Neil's Skies of Arcadia review for Future's Daily Radar website can actually be found on the Internet Archive. There was a Sonic Shuffle review also published on the same site, but from a different author, Adrian Lawton. Interestingly, it would use a very similar strapline to Neil's unpublished review. Neil explained that he and Adrian were good friends, and so at the time, he would have let him use his strapline. Neil also believes he may have submitted his review for Ducati World to Daily Radar, but I couldn't find this one archived. 

Neil's Skies of Arcadia review in Sega Powered issue 2. Thanks to Andrew Dickinson for the pic.

As for Neil's Skies of Arcadia review in Sega Powered, it can be found in issue 2 (March 2022) of the sadly now discontinued magazine. Over 20 years in the making, Neil makes his love for Skies abundantly clear in this six-page retrospective, citing it as a formative moment in his gaming journey. He also provides some fun context about how he was initially reluctant to review the game for DC-UK due to a lack of interest, but was eventually persuaded by his deputy editor as no one else was available. The review is definitely worth a read if you can track down a copy of Sega Powered's second issue on eBay.

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So in conclusion, was it a tragedy that DC-UK was ended in the way it was? Yes. Am I being a touch dramatic? Probably. But a magazine as high-quality as DC-UK deserved way more than just 20 issues. There have been plenty of mags covering video game systems over the years that were fortunate enough to run for at least 40–50 issues, with some even surpassing 100, but what can you do when the console you're covering turns out to not be all that popular? Still, DC-UK's short lifespan does at least make it a manageable set for collectors to get.

I'd like to extend a huge thank you to Keith Stuart, Andrew Hind, and Neil Randall for their patience and generosity in answering all the questions I sent their way — particularly Neil, who I swear I probably sent like a hundred questions over the months we corresponded. And of course, I also want to say a big thanks to Marc Jowett for putting me in touch with Neil in the first place. Please go and support SegaMags and The Gaming Newsagent!

Do you remember picking up DC-UK issue 20 back in the day? Did you shed a tear when you realised you'd never get to read issue 21? Also, let us know which of Neil's four reviews is your favourite. Drop us a comment below, or on one of our many social media pages!

Related:

• DreamPod Interview with former DC-UK editor Caspar Field
• 25 Years of Dreamcast: EGX London 2024 panel with Caspar Field, Keith Stuart and Andrew Dickinson