DCJY x VGNYsoft 20th Anniversary Collection — Limited Edition Dreamcast Junkyard VMUs, Console Shells and more!

Did we mention that The Dreamcast Junkyard is 20 years old? Well we didn't stop banging on about it back in December when the anniversary fell. We put out a blog post, a podcast episode, a round of t-shirts, and a whole load of social media spam to celebrate. But we also had something epic brewing in the pipeline, and today we're very excited to reveal it to you.

We have collaborated with our friends at VGNYsoft, the indie publishing arm of Videogamesnewyork, which has published some of the very best Sega Dreamcast indie titles in the United States, to bring you an epic collection of five limited edition items to celebrate The Dreamcast Junkyard's 20 years on the web.

Working alongside the VGNYsoft team for the past nine or so months has been an absolute pleasure, although keeping our lips sealed about such an awesome collaboration has been no easy feat. So without further delay, let's get into it...

DCJY 20th Anniversary VMU Shells and VMU

In 2024, we got our hands on some very cool injection-moulded replacement Visual Memory Unit shells from VGNYsoft. These replacement VMU shells were originally offered through a Kickstarter campaign before becoming more widely available via VGNYsoft's webstore. The idea was simple: remove the knackered, yellowed shell from an existing VMU and swap it out for a fresh one in one of several vibrant colours. Having had the chance to own some of these, I can confidently say the build quality is excellent, and these shells have found a permanent place on some of the VMUs that litter my gaming shelf. 

But yeah, I'm sure you can guess where this is all going. Dreamcast Junkyard VMU shells, baby!

Behold, the Dreamcast Junkyard VMU.

Available from VGNYsoft's webstore will be Dreamcast Junkyard 20th anniversary VMU shells in nine different colours: white, black, smoke, clear, silver, gold, clear orange, clear pink and clear purple. You can see them all below. 

It is very easy to swap a VMU's shell (all you need is a screwdriver and a few minutes), but for those who want to go the whole distance, there will also be new boxed OEM VMUs available fitted with the white 20th anniversary shell (like the one shown above).

A VMU for every occasion.

DCJY 20th Anniversary Console Shell

But those aren't the only shells on offer (we're really giving the girl who sells seashells by the seashore a run for her money.) Also available for the hardware junkies will be this absolutely amazing Dreamcast Junkyard 20th anniversary replacement console shell, manufactured in a transparent clear finish.

I am personally so stoked to get my hands on one of these, as I have a Dreamcast with a blue power LED mod that it'd look incredible on.

The pièce de résistance...

DCJY 20th Anniversary Enamel Pin and Acrylic Keyring

But that's not all. Also available is this lovely enamel pin with the 20th anniversary rendition of our logo, and an acrylic keyring of our regular logo. Put them on your jacket or backpack and make all your friends jealous. Once again, shout out to From Ashes to Fire (aka Kopke) for creating these logos for the Junkyard.

Pray tell, how might one acquire these exquisite treasures?

To get your hands on this merch collection, simply click the link below to head on over to VGNYsoft's special portal for this collaboration, where all items will be made available to pre-order at 12am EDT (that's 5am BST / 9PM PDT) on Monday the 8th of June (note: pre-orders have now gone live). No item will be limited to any specific number, however the window in which you have the chance to purchase them will be limited to a month. We'll see you there.

Click here to view the DCJY x VGNYsoft 20th Anniversary Collection!

Mandatory disclaimer is that we here at The Dreamcast Junkyard will not make any profit from this collaboration. It's also worth mentioning that for everyone ordering from outside of the USA, that up until now, VGNYsoft have only been able to offer domestic shipping on their products, but especially for this collaboration, they will be offering both domestic and international shipping. The team at VGNY has worked hard to keep international shipping costs as low as possible, starting at around $16 for international orders (about £11.91 or €13.76).

Balatro and Friday Night Funkin' are coming to Sega Dreamcast!

Since 2024, there's been a continuous stream of new ports to the Sega Dreamcast. While homebrew ports to the Dreamcast have been happening for decades, it definitely seemed like the appearance of Doom 64 and Grand Theft Auto III on the console firmly opened the floodgates to this current wave we're enjoying. With new releases appearing so frequently, I've come to realise that I'm eventually going to run out of fresh ways to introduce each article. There's only so many ways I can say "the Dreamcast didn't actually die in 2002, here's proof!" So let's just get straight to the good stuff: there's two cult indie hits coming to the 'Cast.

Balatro

Screenshot: Espouaisso

I'm pretty good at unintentionally avoiding the zeitgeist. I mean, I write for a Dreamcast blog, for God's sake (so perhaps it is more intentional than I realise?) But this is why I'm still yet to play the poker-themed phenomenon that is Balatro. It's on every modern platform, so I'm not sure why I've never gotten round to giving it a try. Well, it's now also confirmed to be working on the Dreamcast too, thanks to the work of a dev known as Espouaisso. 

Espouaisso has already managed to get a substantial portion of the game running at a smooth 60 FPS on real hardware, as demonstrated in this video from The Sega Guru. There is still plenty of work to be done, however, including implementing missing features and ironing out a number of graphical glitches.

Work porting Balatro to Dreamcast appears to have started around 16 days ago (at least, this is when Espouaisso first posted about it, anyway), so to see it in the working state it's in already is impressive indeed. If they continue at that same pace, Dreamcast owners may not have to wait much longer before they're able to download and play it for themselves.

Friday Night Funkin'

Screenshot: itsthedis

Friday Night Funkin' is a stylish-as-heck rhythm game heavily influenced by titles such as Dance Dance Revolution and PaRappa the Rapper, which sees players going head-to-head against a range of quirky opponents in sing-offs with the goal of impressing the main character's girlfriend. This is another one I've managed to miss (mainly because I suck at rhythm games), but I've always liked its visual style. I was not surprised whatsoever to learn that Friday Night Funkin' first debuted as a demo on Newgrounds, considering its art direction is very much reminiscent of Flash game classics like Alien Hominid, but with more of a hip-hop flare. 

Due to the game being open-source, it has enjoyed a thriving modding scene over the years, and is also the reason we will soon be seeing a port come to our beloved Dreamcast. The game is currently being recreated in the Raylib engine by developer itsthedis and has already been confirmed to boot and run on real Dreamcast hardware in a playable state. The animations are noticeably blurry at the moment (as shown above), though this is something that itsthedis is working to improve.

If you'd like to try this early build for yourself, head over to the Simulant Discord. A quick search there will lead you to a working CDI image that you can run on your Dreamcast.

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Are you excited to see Balatro and Friday Night Funkin' come to the Dreamcast? Let us know in the comments below! I personally feel like the console is the perfect home for unique indie titles like these.