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.

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!

Interview: Out of Print Archive

Many gamers of a certain age will no doubt recall those halcyon days when the only way to really get your fix of gaming news, was to await the monthly publication of your favourite magazine. The internet of the early '90s was far removed from the internet of present year, and as such watching video of new releases or flipping through hi-resolution images direct from developer on social media wasn't something you could do. Indeed, most of my early memories of using the internet to find out about new game releases involve sneaking into the school IT suite at lunchtimes to employ Alta Vista in my insatiable quest for knowledge. Oh, and using Game Sages to get cheats. Does anyone else remember Game Sages or am I just making that website up?

Kids these days will never know the anticipation of that illuminated N *shakes fist at cloud*

Yes, back in the day, the magazine was king and it was through reading those printed materials that I took an interest in pursuing games journalism as a profession. Nowadays, I'm actually quite glad that I am not a professional games journalist, such is the the way online discourse has morphed, but for a period back in the late '90s and early 2000s it was all I wanted to do with my life. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that ambition either. 

Magazines of that period, and more to the point - the people who created them, were our heroes. They were the influencers of their day. Gus Swan, Marcus Hawkins, Caspar Field, Les Ellis, Jaz Rignall, Radion Automatic, Zy Nicholson, Wil Overton, Paul Davies, Keith Stuart, Simon Phillips, Ed Lomas, Tim Weaver, Mean Yob...just a few of the names I can instantly rattle off as an avid reader of a plethora of UK magazines from the 90s and 2000s. And I'm sure those in other parts of the world, and of a certain age can name the authors of their favourite magazines too.

The point I'm trying to make is that magazines were a huge part of many gamers' formative years, and the popularity of podcast Maximum Power Up's superb series of interviews with journos of yesteryear proves this. Furthermore, one website which encapsulates the magic of print media and preserving those memories is the excellent Out of Print Archive. A repository for digitised copies of print magazines of a bygone era, the Out of Print Archive has cemented itself as one of the premier online destinations for anyone who is looking to re-read those magical tomes of their childhood and take a walk down memory lane.

For this reason, we thought it would be pretty cool to speak to the people behind Out of Print Archive, ask them where the inspiration for the site came from, their digitisation process for various Dreamcast-related (and other format) magazines, and to find out what makes them - and the Archive itself - tick. Enjoy...

DCJY: Thanks so much for agreeing to speak to us about all things magazines! Could you tell us a bit about who you are, and what your roles are at Out of Print Archive?

Andy: Hello, my name is Andy (meppi64), I’m from Belgium and I’m working my way through scanning all my UK magazines, editing and restoring them. I also do all the coding and design work on the website itself and I run the Twitter account.

Neil: Hi, I'm Neil, I'm from the United Kingdom (Scotland) and I am one of the admins at Out of Print Archive. One of my initial roles when starting the project was to reach out to the UK publishers in an effort to obtain permission (officially and unofficially) to archive their back catalogue of gaming magazines. 

This allowed us to archive classic video gaming magazines without the nagging feeling that a publisher might come along with a cease and desist order. I have also written the odd article on classic magazines and have caught up with a few important people from the magazines in questions for an interview or input for a feature.

What’s the origin story of the Out of Print Archive? When and why did you decide to set up the site?

Neil: I have always been a fan of classic gaming magazines which lead me to create my own digital retro gaming magazine called Retroaction in 2008. After the release of the first issue, Carl, a fellow retro gaming magazine fan commented on how the ‘zine reminded him of the classic magazine GameFan, particularly its design and layout. 

He asked if he could post the news of the release with a small write up on the retro gaming forums where he was one of the admins along with Andy. This in turn introduced me to the world of magazine archiving and to Andy and his fantastic method of archiving Official Sega Saturn Magazine. I knew then that I wanted my own magazines to be archived in a similar way.

By 2009, we felt we needed to start our own archiving project. One that was totally transparent: free from ads, donations, or any other hindrance. Our main reason for this was to follow on from one of our main goals, in that to reach out to the publishers from yesteryear and get their permission to archive their back catalogue of magazines.

Andy: Originally I came across just 3 digital scans of the Official Sega Saturn magazine online, this must have been somewhere around 2004-2005. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find any more. Reading through these made me remember just how incredible this magazine was and how it was seemingly lost to time, hardly 6 years after the final issue was released.


So this set things in motion for me. I started the hunt down a complete set, with the goal to scan them (in a rather poor fashion at that time) and looking for various ways to get them into peoples hands again. From here, it snowballed into collecting a lot more magazines.


I met Neil as well as Carl, who has since moved on to other projects, on a message board and after a lot of trial and error, as well as seeing how several scanning projects handled things in ways we didn’t agree with, we decided to set up our own site. Focussing on putting quality above everything else, but also doing things with respect towards not just the publishers, but also the editors, writers, designers, etc.

Basically all the people who originally created these magazines we all fell in love with at one point of our lives.


Wow, so we effectively owe the creation of the Out of Print Archive in some way to the Official Sega Saturn Magazine. Not what I was expecting! You clearly have a love of print media - what are your earliest memories of print magazines?

Andy: My earliest memories of a print magazine has to be Club Nintendo. Not quite sure how I found out about it, but I believe there was some kind of postcard included with certain NES games, which you could send in to Nintendo to request a subscription. Once you were signed up, every 2 months you would receive a free copy of Club Nintendo magazine, which lasted from 1989 to 1993.

Neil: My earliest memory of print magazine is picking up C+VG in 1988. I was fairly late to notice magazines, considering I had been playing games for at least three years up until that point, but C+VG opened my eyes to the wonders that were out there. I eventually reserved a copy of C+VG and continued to receive a copy of it until the early 2000s. My other earliest memory is of grabbing a copy of Amstrad Action in 1989. It was an anniversary issue where they gave away a cover-mounted cassette tape with demos and freeware stuff. This issue also reviewed one of my favourite computer games of all time, Laser Squad.

DCJY welcomes DC-UK founder Caspar Field

In the latest episode of our podcast DreamPod, we were lucky enough to be able to (virtually) sit down with the former Deputy Editor of Edge Magazine Caspar Field. Let's be honest though - most of us know him as the man who launched the iconic Dreamcast magazine DC-UK; and who then went on to launch the short-lived (but equally excellent) Mr. Dreamcast magazine.

Here, in episode 87 of DreamPod, regular hosts Andrew, Tom and Mike chat with Caspar about his time at Edge, the beginnings and end of his tenure at DC-UK, the Mr. Dreamcast project, his successful career in the games industry, the launch of the Dreamcast, the tank shooter Red Dog and its potential PS2 sequel...and a host of other random things you've probably never heard about before.

Huge thanks to Caspar for appearing on our podcast, huge thanks to the graphics maestro Lewis for his artwork, huge thanks to Andrew for sorting this interview, and huge thanks to you lot for listening to our podcast (hint: you don't want to miss this one!).

Be sure to follow Caspar on Twitter, and remember you can find all of our previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and pretty much every podcatcher out there. If you like what you hear, feel free to subscribe and give us a review. Cheers!