Showing posts with label DCJY Interviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DCJY Interviews. Show all posts

Segagaga Encore: A Fan Recreation for PC - Alpha Footage Released!

Back in June, while scrolling the paragraphs of conversation that populate the Dreamcast-Talk Segagaga forum thread, I came upon a post from a developer known as Rengundo, who mentioned that he was working on recreating the first chapter of Segagaga in Unreal Engine 5. Sharing a short 27-second clip of some gameplay, it looked surprisingly faithful to the original. It was on PC, as opposed to the Sega Dreamcast, but —perhaps most importantly— it was in English!

After getting the chance to recently talk with Tez Okano about Segagaga, my appreciation for his game was at an all-time high. But I was soon hit with the sobering reminder that an English fan translation patch for the game continues to remain a non-starter, despite the community's best efforts. As detailed in the introduction to that interview with Okano-san, technical issues with in-game text hacking has been the main hurdle that has prevented any fan translation patch project of the game from reaching completion.

That was when I found myself wondering about Rengundo's project once again. Replying to a comment on his original video, it turned out he was still working on it. He had encountered some issues with Unreal Engine 5, but had since switched the project over to Godot, and confirmed that an update was due imminently.

A cutscene from Segagaga Encore, which uses Ross O'Reilly's open source translation of Segagaga.

On January 5th, alpha footage of what Rengundo was now calling "Segagaga Encore" appeared on YouTube, and well, it's looking really impressive! In the new engine, Rengundo had not only managed to effectively recreate the game's distinct graphical look and "Development Studio A" area, but also its opening cutscenes (complete with English dubbing), and its RPG battle system — all in widescreen. This remake will also feature modern quality-of-life improvements like free movement and cinematic camera angles. If you want to see it for yourself, I have embedded the video below.

While we all obviously want a fan translation patch of Segagaga to be released someday for the Dreamcast, this outside-the-box approach of delivering at least something playable in English —in this case the first chapter— is certainly not something to be sniffed at, especially when it looks this good. Intrigued to learn more, I got in touch with Rengundo to ask him all about the Segagaga Encore project.

DCJY: Hi Rengundo, thanks for agreeing to answer our pressing questions about your Segagaga Encore project. We're really loving what we've seen so far, and are excited to get into the ins and outs of the project with you. First though, we must ask: when was the first time you encountered Segagaga? What was it that drew you to the game?

Rengundo: Thanks for inviting me to answer these questions! I first heard about Segagaga in early 2023 while looking around forums for interesting games to potentially translate. The strange name immediately caught my attention, and the more I learned about it, the more intrigued I became. I’m not sure there’s anything quite like it. It’s this wonderfully self-deprecating, meta take on Sega’s own struggles at the time, where two high schoolers are tasked with saving the company from bankruptcy. 

What truly fascinates me is the way Segagaga blends humor and commentary on the gaming industry. For instance, its “battle system” revolves around arguing with Sega employees. After each battle, there’s a chance to negotiate salaries with the employees, trying to bring them onto your team at the lowest possible rate to maximize your budget. A lot of its jabs at industry practices, like rushing out unfinished titles to boost sales during high demand, still feel very relevant today. It’s such an interesting little game that it’s impossible for me to ignore.

Various technical hurdles with hacking Segagaga have been blamed for why we don't have an English fan translation patch for it already. Was your recreation of Segagaga on PC an attempt to take matters into your own hands and bypass the roadblocks that face the Dreamcast version?

Absolutely. By the time I learned about Segagaga, there was some decent progress on many of the hurdles, though there were notable issues that still remained. As someone new to the Dreamcast modding scene, and seeing the nearly two decades of failed attempts to make an English version, I didn’t feel confident in my ability to create a translation patch. I had the idea of making the game in Unreal Engine, as it didn’t seem too logically complicated if I only focused on the RPG parts. I decided to recreate the first chapter of the game, hoping that part of the game being playable in English could build interest and support for patch efforts. 

For the earliest version, I ripped the player’s sprites from VRAM to make a sprite sheet for him and put some basic movement code together. I shelved the project when new people announced they were working on a translation patch. But after more than a year with no updates from them, I decided to pick it back up and have been making progress since.

Doom 64 for Dreamcast: Impressions and Developer Interview

See, before I got my Dreamcast in November 1999 I owned a Nintendo 64. I couldn't get a Dreamcast at launch because my dear old mother (God rest her soul) forbade me from owning more than one console at a time. Consoles, she wagered (and therefore games of all types) led to a malady known simply as "brain rot." Her words, not mine. 

Regardless, I tell you this to set the scene of my pre-Dreamcast gaming habits. I wasn't what you'd call a hardcore Nintendo fan, you understand - the Nintendo 64 was actually the first Nintendo system I had owned at that point, having been a devout Saturn apologist immediatley prior and before that one of the 7 people in the UK who owned an Atari Jaguar (Jag reference: check). No, I got a Nintendo 64 because I simply had to have 'the fastest, most powerful games console on Earth,' which was ironic, seeing as that's how Nintendo's platform was officially marketed at one point.

Oooh...a Sonic the Fighters preview? Sold!

In the very early days of the Nintendo 64's existence, it was known as the Ultra 64, which apart from being possibly the sexiest moniker ever to grace a games console, also invited many a developer to prefix their upcoming titles with the word 'ultra.' With this in mind, one of the games that piqued my interest very early on was Ultra Doom. 

By the time the magazines were teasing Ultra Doom, I had already played the original Doom on the PC (a slightly decrepit 386 that even at the time was wheezingly obsolete, what with its Windows 3.1 operating system and lack of CD-Rom drive), and had then sampled Doom's delights/horrors on the Atari Jaguar and the Sega Saturn respectively. But Ultra Doom - which was later renamed Doom 64 - now...that held a certain fascination and morbid curiosity. It was Doom, but not as we knew it. Side note: I was also very much looking forward to the Ultra 64 port of Red Baron, but we'll probably never know what happened to that particular footnote of gaming history. Moving on...

Give GT Interactive a ring on that number bottom left. I dare you.

From the first time I saw those pink plasticine (clay) demons, foreboding sky boxes and brand new levels reproduced in tiny low resolution magazine preview shots, I knew I would one day play Doom 64. Quite simply, it was my destiny. Lo and behold, the prophecy was eventually fulfilled and Doom 64 was a constant inhabitant of my Nintendo 64's cartridge slot once I managed to get hold of a copy in late 1997 or early 1998. I can't quite remember exactly when I got Doom 64 because it was 27-odd years ago...and now I feel the crushing weight of middle age gripping my soul. Thanks for that.

Still banging on about Turok nine months later. Boring!

What I do remember though, is the magazine reviews. The journos of the era, I seem to recall, while not crushingly negative, weren't exactly enamoured with Doom 64: some reviews slagged off the sprite based visuals, puzzle design and complete lack of multiplayer options. Turok Dinosaur Hunter had also been out for a while by the time Doom 64 released, and many reviews were lukewarm on Midway and GT Interactive's Doom update for its reliance on 'old fashioned' visuals and gameplay tropes. 

That didn't bother me, though - I thought Doom 64 was excellent and I can clearly remember being awestruck the first time I saw that darkened corridor in the second level where the neon arrows are painted on the floor and ceiling. It was just mesmerising and fresh to me, especially having played other versions of 'normal' Doom to death. I should also mention at this point that I had also played the PlayStation port of Doom on a friend's console and I loved the colourful lighting...but, y'know, I didn't have a PlayStation. It is what it is.

It's about to kick off. Nice candles though.

By now, you're probably wondering what any of this tripe has got to do with the Dreamcast, and I think you'd be well within your rights to demand a refund of your internet data considering you came here to read about Dreamcast stuff. But here's the bait and switch: Doom 64 is now available on the Dreamcast...and it's possibly the best way to play 1997's Doomiest release in the present year...

An Interview with Tetsu "Tez" Okano - the Mastermind behind Cult Dreamcast RPG Segagaga

There isn't a day that goes by in the Sega Dreamcast community where someone doesn't ask when an English fan translation of Hitmaker's 2001 Japan-exclusive Segagaga —the RPG simulation title where you run Sega— is releasing. Since the mid-2000s, a handful of translation projects have been announced, only to inevitably fizzle out, leading some to go as far as to brand the game as "cursed" (see also: “the final boss” and “the Half-Life 3” of Dreamcast translations). But what many may not realise is that rounding up the perfect group of persevering translators to see a translation through to fruition is the least of Segagaga's problems. The biggest hurdle facing any translation patching attempt is actually the way the game was originally programmed to draw text from the Dreamcast's BIOS, as opposed to using a font sheet, like many (successfully translated!) Dreamcast games do. While the core of this issue has been solved by some exceptionally talented hackers in the Dreamcast fan community, there is still much to be worked on.

Photo of the regular Segagaga release. Photo: doceggfan.

But it's only natural that out of all the games, an English translation of Segagaga would be the most sought after by fans of Sega and the Dreamcast alike. Segagaga satirises Sega itself, providing an entertaining tribute to its diverse and beloved back catalogue of franchises and characters, while also not pulling any punches in its portrayal of the then-struggling corporation's various business missteps. Some great tributes have followed since, such as the animated series Sega Hard Girls, and ensemble games like All-Stars Racing Transformed. However, through its brutal honesty and self-awareness, it is Segagaga which stands out the most, not only as a fitting love letter to Sega, but also as a prime example of the rebellious nature the corporation was known for during its time as a console manufacturer.

When it came to masterminding Segagaga, there was truly only one man for the job. Step up Tetsu Okano, aka Tez Okano, aka "Zolger Tetsu", aka "Ichizou Zoruge", aka the director of the best Astro Boy game. Known for his unconventional approach to everything from video games to manga, Okano-san truly took a risk when he set out to create a game that poked fun at the very company he worked for, and we are elated to reveal that we recently got the chance to talk to him all about his career, and of course, Segagaga.

Screenshot of Segagaga. Credit: CDRomance.

Translator extraordinaire Duralumin —who previously assisted with our Kenji Tosaki interview— returns once more to translate Okano-san's answers from Japanese. Laurence Goodchild also deserves a shout out for assisting with the questions and supplying the lovely photos of the Segagaga launch event, scanned from issue 16 of Italian Dreamcast magazine Dreamcast Arena.

But this wouldn't be an interview with Tez Okano if it didn't diverge from the traditional format in some way! When asking Okano-san about his earliest memories of video games, his reply was... a comic? Well, in case you didn't know, in Japan, Okano-san published an autobiographical manga called "8-Bit Chronicles" which covers his formative years as a child discovering the burgeoning world of video games. He supplied us with the first two chapters in Japanese, and Duralumin —who translates manga professionally— proceeded to translate them into English. We have uploaded them to a Google Drive folder so you can read them, which is something I implore you do. The comic is not only an awesome homage to the golden age of video games, but also very amusing.

A small preview of the first page of 8-Bit Chronicles, as translated by Duralumin.

Finally, Okano-san wanted us to stress to you, our audience, that the answers you see below from him are his recollections of events that happened over two decades ago. He wanted to make sure that we clarify that he is not speaking officially on Sega's behalf, just recounting his own memories of the time. With that disclaimer out of the way the interview!

Photo of Tez Okano. Credit: Sega Retro.

DCJY: Thank you for talking with us, Okano-san! We thought it was only right to start at the beginning, so what are your earliest memories of video games?

Tez Okano: When this is published, I hope you'll share the first chapter of my manga, 8-Bit Chronicles. It covers Space Invaders, Galaxian... I could talk about those games all day! But this is probably the easiest way to understand the story of why I, as well as many other Japanese kids in the late '70s, fell in love with video games.

What led you into a career in the games industry, and how did you eventually join Sega?

When I was still in my college years, I made my debut as a manga artist through Kodansha. However, working as a manga artist, you don't really have any security once your series is over, so I found myself enticed by the gleam of the rising star that was the gaming industry. And of course, Sega at the time was still young, and seeking unconventional talent.

"Morning" magazine, where Tez Okano's early manga work was published. His name can be seen at the top of the woman's right shoulder.

So let's get into Segagaga. It has been documented that you developed the game in secret for two years before presenting it to Sega. What was your reasoning for keeping it a secret?

Many places have a particular culture around satire, parody, and irony, Japan included. However —I understand you’re from England irony is much less familiar to us in Japan than it is in the UK. And while Sega was a pretty big umbrella, it had no shortage of people who would take issue with self-deprecating parody. You'll also notice there's never been any effort to make, say, a Namcococo or Nintendododo, for example, and that should tell you something. That being said, Sega has always prided itself on doing the crazy stuff that no one else could pull off, and the Segagaga project explored that philosophy to the limit. But, it just wasn't the kind of thing that you wanted to make a show of around the company, and invite all that scrutiny and risk the project's survival.

Grand Theft Auto 3 for the Dreamcast - DCA3 Alpha Version Now Available

Japanese cover art mock-up courtesy of Dreamcast-Talk user k-do.
Most of you will likely know that a port of Grand Theft Auto III for the Sega Dreamcast has been in the works for some months now. Indeed, those outside the niche Dreamcast scene may have even heard the news given that the project gained coverage across the broader gaming press earlier this year, attracting everything from wide-eyed amazement through to cynical befuddlement. Back then, spectating the porting work was possible because the project was out in the open, with every ounce of progress laid bare for the public to see in real time.

In recent weeks though, this dynamic was lost as those at the heart of the project shifted to working in a behind-the-scenes fashion - most likely to reduce the risk of Rockstar putting the kibosh on the project before it had a chance to bear fruit. As such, we went from hearing near-daily updates, to a radio silence that carried the potential to feed cynical thoughts: where's my freaking GTA 3 already? What are those lazy no-good schlubs doing? Maybe a port wasn't feasible all along! and so on, and so forth. Fortunately though, even with the absence of a cheerleading public, it seems that the rapid pace of development didn't slow down one iota, as today the alpha version of DCA3 (top marks for this pun lads) has been released.

What does it stand for though? Can you do better than 'divine car abduction III'? Let's hear your suggestions in the comments please.

What does this mean exactly? Well, it means that, with a little jiggery pokery, you can compile a version of GTA 3 that will run on your Dreamcast. Given that it is an alpha version, bugs and occasional crashes are to be expected. Nevertheless, many testers have reported running the game for extended periods without issue, and, in my experience, the alpha version looks gorgeous and runs far better than I had expected it might. The controls map quite naturally on to the Dreamcast's regular controller (for the most part), and, perhaps most importantly, those who wish to progress with Claude through the game's infamous gangland story are be able to save progress to a VMU (although using one which is otherwise empty is recommended).

A key reason that you will need to compile your own alpha version, rather than simply download a ready-to-go .CDI or .GDI, is that players are expected to have their own legitimate version of the game. Morals and ethics aside, this is obviously an absolutely essential step to ensure the preservation of the porting project - any moves that have even the slightest whiff of piracy risk incurring the wrath of some extremely well resourced legal teams.

A sight to behold. Not the undecorated walls... GTA 3 on the Dreamcast!

Fortunately, compiling instructions are available. So, as long as you are capable of following these, have bought a copy of GTA 3 for PC (Rockstar offer a digital version with Vice City and San Andreas for a reasonable price), and have a Dreamcast that can play burned discs or has an optical drive emulator installed, then you should be good to go.

It would be wrong to drop this piece of news and not say something about the significance of the release. Really, it's hard to overstate what a monumental achievement the port is. In less than a year, an international crew of enthusiastic developers ('The Gang'), led by the mastermind skmp, have applied their skills to voluntarily deliver one of the defining games of the sixth console generation to the Dreamcast - a game that had begun development on Sega's swansong console, but instead ended up fuelling the stratospheric success of the arch-rival PlayStation 2, shifting 11 million copies for that console alone. 

In the intervening years the possibility of GTA 3 running on the DC has cropped up again and again as a topic of conversation in the scene, whether that be the technical flavour of 'could it be done?' or the alternative history variant of 'what if it had been?' The latter conversation may still plod on forever more, but the former is now totally dead and buried. Evidently, with the right skills and commitment, use of the free development library KallistiOS, and access to reverse-engineered code, it has now been definitively proven that the Dreamcast is more than capable of running this game.

Image created by Brazilian Dreamcast supremo NaiSan.

Of course, what is on offer right now is only an alpha version, but given the team's track record, it seems highly likely that the project will progress on to further iterations that buff out the rough edges. For now, all that's left to do is hear a few words from 'The Gang' themselves...

Preview: Sovietborgs

Nearly three years on since the release of the fabulous Xenocider, Spanish indie development studio Retro Sumus have released more tantalising details about their follow-up Dreamcast and Mega Drive/Genesis offering, Sovietborgs. Retro Sumus have taken something of a diversion with Sovietborgs though - as you can probably tell from the screenshots dotted throughout this article - moving away from the polygonal splendour of Xara's 2021 Sin & Punishment homage, and instead channelled the likes of The Chaos Engine (and possibly early Saturn/PlayStation shooter Loaded) with this latest project.

For the record, the images here are taken from a very early demo of the Mega Drive version of Sovietborgs (releases for both Sega platforms were announced simultaneously), and the Dreamcast version promises visual and audio enhancements, more of which you can read about in the short interview below. But first, you may well be asking yourself: what the hell is a Sovietborg and why should I give a damn?!

According the official lore of Sovietborgs (um...Retro Sumus' Twitter account), the story goes a little something like this:

On November 9, 1989, 11:14 pm, the KGB's glorious electronic brain, Tovarishch-Prime, became self-aware, and immediately managed to take control of Arpanet, triggering the detonation of all capitalist thermo-nuclear devices inside their own silos. 

25 years later, the West remains a nuclear wasteland. But like cockroaches, there are still pockets of resistance and free-thinking threatening our workers' paradise. In these forsaken locations, new mutant races emerged due to radiation and their sickening capitalist mind. Fortunately, the Soviet People have developed a new unit of the illustrious Red Army, the Sovietborgs. 

Half man, half machine, all proletarian, they can go where no one else can, inmune to radiation, and liberate all new capitalist races from their pitiful existence. Join the Sovietborgs. Become a part of their prestigious present and future, travel the world pacifying all hotbeds of belligerence. Let the dream world of our venerable Tovarishch-Prime finally become a reality for all.

So yeah, something about capitalists and cyborgs. And guns. Lots of guns. We've played the limited demo of Sovietborgs and found it to be a rather enjoyable explore-and-shoot-stuff style romp, where you control the lead 'borg (designated by a little hat, naturally), while two AI controlled 'borgs follow you around and do your bidding. And by 'bidding' I mean shoot stuff. 

The demo is really only a single level, but it gives a good idea of what we can expect in the final game, with you controlling the squad as you move through ruined landscapes wiping out hordes of zombies which burst through randomly appearing portals with a taste for human brains; spider things that erupt from puddles of green ooze; and...er...mutant chickens which cluck forth from eggs that descend from the heavens. You need to destroy the delivery methods from which these unspeakable bastards all spring too, otherwise they'll just keep coming. This can be a bit problematic on a technical level as the demo does suffer a little with slow down when the hordes get a bit big, but we have no doubt this will be sorted in the final game and opens up the Dreamcast version for some absolutely enormous crowds of enemies streaming towards your squad. Nice.

Dream Disc '24 Game Jam - More Details and an Interview with the Organisers

The logo for the Dream Disc' 24 Game Jam

On the 23rd of October, the organisers of the Dream Disc ‘24 Game Jam revealed their forthcoming event to the world, and, in the days that have since passed, their announcement has produced quite a buzz, not only within our niche scene, but across the wider gaming world too.

For some, the title of this hotly anticipated 'jam' may be confusing though, so let me break it down in lay terms. A game jam is a time-restricted event at which developers of various kinds will conceptualise and begin creating games. Much like a musical jam, the idea is that people with complementary skills will band together, sometimes with total strangers, and experiment in an open-minded environment. The hope is that the focused attention these conditions produce will result in some innovative results. Alas, it’s always a possibility that some of the outputs will be hideous abominations, but the learning and networking experience can be useful in and of itself nonetheless. 

A Peep Show meme with the game Frog Feast being referred to as not jam, but just 'fucking marmalade'.

In the case of the Dream Disc’ 24 Game Jam, developers are being encouraged to congregate online around itch.io and the Simulant Discord between Friday 20 December and Friday 3 January to “collaborate, build, tinker and show off” their projects. That being said, projects that were begun prior to these dates can be submitted, and entrants are welcome to drop by and introduce themselves whenever they may wish. In another wise move from the organisers, it’s also the case that, in addition to games, software utilities and even hardware can be accommodated for too.

So, that clears up the sticky issue of what ‘jam’ means. What about the ‘Dream Disc ‘24’ part? Well,  thanks to one of the event’s main sponsors, Orc Face Games, the top ten entries (as judged by expert panel) shall subsequently be featured on a physical CD-ROM to be made available to the public for the cost of shipping alone. If that wasn’t enough incentive, there is also a cash prize pool to be shared by the top three entrants. This currently stands at close to $900 USD, and in a peculiar twist of fate has been buoyed by advertising income that had been set aside for a contest to be hosted by the website DCEmu 15 years ago that never materialised. Those funds are now finally being put to good use thanks to one of the administrators of that OG website, darksaviour, digging them out all these years later. Of course, the pot is likely to grow further too as news spreads and additional donations are received

An Interview with Kenji Tosaki: How the Sega Dreamcast and its Beloved Peripherals Came to Be

One day we realised that The Dreamcast Junkyard account on Twitter (or X, as it is now known...) was followed by none other than Kenji Tosaki, the peripheral development manager at Sega of Japan from the 1990s until 2001, when he retired. He led the design process for classic Sega Saturn peripherals like the 3D Control Pad and the Virtua Gun, but perhaps most importantly to us here at the Junkyard, he was heavily involved with the design of the Dreamcast console hardware, its controller, the Visual Memory Unit (VMU), and even the Samba de Amigo Maracas Controller, to name a few. To have such an important figure from Sega's heyday follow usof all peoplewas truly an honour. We knew we had to reach out and try and arrange some sort of opportunity to speak with him.

What followed was a whole lot of machine-translated correspondence, and we must thank Tosaki-san for answering all our questions, as well as his time and patience throughout this process. Another thank you also goes out to Brian Vines and Laurence Goodchild for assisting me with the decision on which questions to ask, as well as Derek Pascarella for some technical explanations.

Of course, we couldn't just let the resulting interview you see below remain machine-translated, so this is where I must extend a huge thanks to translation extraordinaire (and my former Nakoruru fan translation comrade-in-arms) Duralumin, who graciously translated Tosaki-san's original Japanese answers into English.

What was revealed from our conversation with Tosaki-san is a whole lot of great insight into how the Dreamcast hardware and many beloved peripherals came to be. We also thought it was important to use this opportunity to try and dig deeper into some of the more esoteric Dreamcast-related lore, to try and get some light shone on topics that have fuelled debates within Sega fan communities for decades. Why was a second analog stick a no show on the Dreamcast controller? What was Sega's view on adopting the almighty DVD format that would've supposedly helped the Dreamcast go toe-to-toe with Sony's PlayStation 2? We also made sure to pick Tosaki-san's brain about some cancelled Dreamcast peripherals, such as the VMU MP3 player, with the hopes of unearthing new information about them.

While our interview does touch on the Sega Saturn somewhat, it is mainly referenced to assist the explanation of points relating to the Dreamcast's own design. If you'd like to hear Tosaki-san get more in-depth about the Saturn, I highly recommend you go check out his interview with our friends over at SEGA SATURN, SHIRO!

Credit: Sega Retro

DCJY: Thank you for agreeing to talk with us about your career at Sega, Tosaki-san. We have read that you were involved with the design of the Dreamcast console. The design was definitely more compact than its predecessor, the Saturn, and very futuristic-looking for the time. When you and your team set out to design the console, what inspired the design?

Kenji Tosaki: The lead director and producer on the design of the Dreamcast was actually Mr. Oikawa [Akitoshi Oikawa], who also handled the design of the Sega Saturn. For the Dreamcast, the design of the console itself was contracted out, but Mr. Oikawa personally handled the controllers and other peripherals.

Now, when the Saturn was still in development, we ended up drawing up the design ahead of finalizing how much space all the internals would need. Stuff like the main board, the CD drive, power supply unit, all of that. The original design was quite a bit smaller than what the Saturn finally became. As development progressed, we added more components, and the footprint grew larger.

The preliminary designs for the console couldn't accommodate all the changes, so we had to go back to the drawing board, and it ended up quite a bit different from what we had originally envisioned. It had to be made larger, so we also had to redesign some of the finer details of its appearance to match.

With the Saturn, the technical development —the main board, the drive unit, etc.— and the product design had been sort of progressing on different fronts, and that disconnect caused us a lot of issues. Plus, the technical design turned out to be more complex than expected, so the production and assembly was more complicated. We learned from all of that when we were working on the Dreamcast. 

Our top priorities in designing the Dreamcast were to optimize the internal layout and heat dissipation. I think the internal design turned out really nice and clean. Of course, keeping it simple also helped with assembly. We also waited to plan out the console design until the technical design had been locked in to a certain extent, so we didn’t have to go back and rework a lot of things.

Regarding the design itself, we shopped the job around to a wide variety of outside agencies for proposals;  not just Japanese companies, but even American design houses. Mr. Oikawa reviewed a ton of ideas. 

Ultimately, Mr. Oikawa went with a relatively minor Japanese company’s proposal. They did a very good job of taking Mr. Oikawa’s asks into account when building their approach.

On the conceptual approach, I’ll quote Mr. Oikawa himself:

"The Dreamcast design is made up of simple shapes; squares, triangles, and circles. The point of the triangle points toward the player, representing how the games and online content were to be player-focused. From the console, straight to the player. But then the start button on the controller points towards the Dreamcast. That represents how, in response, the players reach out and connect with the console."

Credit: Sega Retro

When you and your team were designing the Dreamcast's controller, what were the most important features or aspects that you knew it had to include? It is well known that the Dreamcast controller shares some design similarities to the Saturn's 3D Control Pad, which you also worked on. How much did that controller inspire the Dreamcast's controller?

When we were developing the Saturn 3D Controller, that was the first time we had ever tried to design an analog-input controller. We looked at how we could best make an analog controller, and spent a lot of time working on the basic design, control methods, layouts, and all the associated design questions.

We also looked into all kinds of additional features; stuff like integrated displays, paddle wheel controls, mouse input, motion sensing, infrared, rumble, haptics, voice recognition... many different things. Most of these features proved too costly to have natively on the Saturn 3D pad, but we made sure to design the controller to include an expansion port so those features could be added later.

We had actually planned out a motion sensor and vibration pack, and even made a prototype. We made sure that the controller's cord ran out of the back, since anything to do with motion sensors that you would have to tilt or shake around would be harder to use with the cord coming out of the front of the controller. 

For the analog inputs, we felt it was essential to use a sensor that wouldn't experience any change in the analog signal from drift or wear. To accomplish that, we used "Hall" elements. We knew we definitely didn’t want resistive sensors. We didn’t add them for the sake of having a selling point, we just saw it as the obvious choice. It wasn’t until 2020 that we saw other companies start making controllers with those same Hall elements. I guess the market finally caught up to the Sega 3D Control Pad, and it only took 25 years.

When it came to the Dreamcast controller, we applied a lot of what we had learned from the Saturn 3D pad.

As I mentioned, the idea behind the Dreamcast ecosystem was “play and communication.” The console could go online, but the concept extended beyond just that. There were also four controller ports, so you could have four people at once all playing together. Then, we decided we would try putting an individual display on each controller. We had originally conceived it as something like a personal monitor for each player for sports games, with individual displays. The VMU was our solution.

Connecting the VMUs directly to the console would have meant we would have to add four pretty big ports for four players’ VMUs, which wasn’t a great solution from either a cost or design standpoint. So, we decided to explore plugging the VMUs into the controllers instead. Every VMU would be like a memory pack, but with an LCD screen and control buttons; it could have its own independent apps, and when it was plugged into the controller, the screen would serve as an additional display.

Away from the controller, you could connect VMUs together to swap data with your friends, or play games against each other. That was another facet of the “communication” concept. For us on the peripherals team, we figured it wasn’t likely that every kid would have an internet connection they could use to play online, so we focused on ways we could build “play and communication” through controllers and accessories.

We also planned out a built-in gyro sensor, so you could control games by moving the controller, as well as built-in vibration, and a built-in light gun pointing device. It turned out to be too expensive to implement those features natively, so we decided to build two expansion slots into the controller. That would leave room for us to release expansion units after the fact. We expected one slot would usually be occupied by the VMU, so we needed to have one more for other expansions.

The most important decision made regarding the controller was to have memory units connect to it instead of the console. We designed the VMUs for that purpose.

The controllers themselves were developed to work with an interface device [MapleBus] that could also support VMUs and any expansion packs. MapleBus proved essential, as it had the kind of scalability we needed.

For the expansion slots, we had to think about what sort of functionality we would need in the future. For instance, if we put out a rumble pack, the vibrations from that accessory would travel down to the slot and the connector. That’s not necessarily healthy for the components, and we expected these to be used long-term. So, we had to come up with a design for the connectors that would be durable and reliable.

The analog input was also much more advanced than the 3D Control Pad. We improved the precision, and allowed wider strokes. At the same time, the units could be made smaller, and needed less space to install internally.

I really would have liked to have seen the gyros, vibration, and wireless pointing built-in on the controller, but it just would’ve been too expensive.

The original US patent for the VMU. Credit: Sega Retro

An interview with David Perkinson - Producer of NFL 2K and World Series Baseball on the Sega Dreamcast

Before 2K Sports, It Was Simply: Sega Sports.

Some of us like to think that science is apolitical. We like to imagine that global, collaborating scientists choose to ignore the lines in our Apple or Google Maps that trace the boundaries of sovereign nations all in the name of research. And sometimes we are right.

It follows then that the inception of Sega Sports' World Series Baseball on the Sega Dreamcast is a story of in-house rivals sharing ideas across miles of oceans. This was possible partly because game design is its own science; its own language — not limited by geopolitical or even cultural constructs. Perhaps it is no wonder then that SEGA of America and Sega of Japan shared Sega Dreamcast technology that would become the foundation to iconic SEGA Sports game franchises.

Before the corruption of 2K Sports as we now know it, it was Sega Sports. I spoke with former Sega Sports producer David Perkinson (World Series Baseball, NFL 2K, Heavy Rain) to discuss how Sega Sports was shaped in its defining Dreamcast era.

Credit: Sega Retro

Steven Montani: How did you end up at Sega?

David Perkinson: Yeah, that’s a good question! I graduated from college in the Spring of ’93. I went to school in Ohio, and my sister and her husband lived in San Francisco. My sister had been doing some work at the time with kind of a small, wannabe-publisher, and they had a few games they were working on. At the time, CES was the big gameshow pre-E3. At the time, CES was in Chicago, and I was in Ohio and they wanted somebody to work the booth. I did some work for this company, and I was not being asked for too much. I helped people play, rebooted systems, and handed out pamphlets. CES ended and they asked me if I wanted to come work for them in the Bay Area for the summer. So I did. I flew out there and I began working for them without any real defined terms. Neither party knew if it would be a long-term thing, short-term thing or whatever. I worked there a couple of months at the time, sending reviewable builds out to media people and general stuff around the office. I just graduated from college and my friends had graduated from college and it was going to be our last summer together so I decided I was going to head back home. I left that gig. And then committed myself to moving back to the Bay Area. My sister was there. I had an easy in. I drove from Ohio, got to the Bay Area on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.

I saw an ad in the paper that said: “growing software publisher needs testers.“ It did not say who it was. Since I just had done that, I decided to apply. Applied on Monday. Got the job on Tuesday. And then I was around Sega in different incarnations, always working on Sega stuff, for about ten years. I started out in [quality assurance], spent maybe about a year in QA, and then moved into production. I always had an affinity for the sports stuff, so I began working on the Genesis sports stuff. That transitioned into 32X and the Saturn, and then into Dreamcast, and ultimately into publishing Sega Sports or ESPN video games even, developed by Sega and Visual Concepts for other platforms.

My role kind of increased. I was assistant producer, associate producer, producer, and then doing all kinds of stuff. Like taking on projects from Sega of Japan, working with developers in the United States on stuff from scratch. Almost all of it in the sports realm.
NFL's Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993 - one of the earliest games David worked on as a tester.

Did you have a passion for sports beforehand, before entering the game industry? Or did it develop while you were there?

I played an embarrassing amount of Techmo Bowl in college. Blades of Steel, Double Dribble on Nintendo Entertainment System was kind of a fun one. It had that hook shot from the corner that was kind of a bug that the shot was never missed. I was always a huge sports fan growing up — it was a passion of mine and so I kind of fell into it naturally. When I got on sports games working in QA, I just had a good connection with them and built really good working connections with the production teams on the SEGA side, and developers on development side.

So that was an MBA of sorts in production, in game development, and in publishing during your time there…

Yeah! One of the great things about it was that the group of people working there — it was a really eclectic group of people, a lot of whom got their start at the same time as I did, who were still in there doing really cool stuff. They accomplished great things in games, or whether they moved into other areas of software development. We had writers, actors, musicians, just the gambit of creative people that worked there. We were kind of like-minded. I consider myself incredibly fortunate, right place at the right time.

That’s one part of it. The other part of it that made it so interesting and kind of challenging — every hardware generation, the rules completely changed. The expectations would change. The technology would change. The things you had to work on and think about and the tools used to develop the games and the complexity and the visual improvement — all of it was constantly evolving. You could always apply lessons before of making successful products, but there was a fair amount of improvisation in every hardware generation. You really had to think quickly and problem solve, and find a way to execute the best product given the constraints. Super-fun.

That is in line with some of the documentaries I’ve seen on SEGA. Where SEGA had been considered, maybe back in those days, like how we'd see modern indie studios — an eclectic personality to the entire studio. People were not afraid to take risks, explore avenues with their creativity and mess with different mediums mixing different disciplines.

Even outside of the sports stuff, you had all of types of creativity coming from SEGA of Japan. Just legendary designers making incredibly famous products. There was a fearlessness and spirit of innovation that led them to take risks. Even if the games did not blow out sales, those innovations would drive something else that would show up in some other product that could make that successful and shine. At SEGA of America, even outside of the sports world. I think of stuff like Ecco the Dolphin. Incredibly creative game.

Orc Face Games: New SEGA Dreamcast Indie Game Publisher from HarleQuest! Developer

The Kickstarter for Ross Kilgariff's 3D Dreamcast dungeon crawler HarleQuest! may have launched on April Fool's Day 2023, but it is quite clear from the community hype surrounding it that it is definitely no joke. Back in January, we asked Junkyard readers to tell us their most anticipated indie release as part of our Top 25 Dreamcast Indie Games poll, and HarleQuest! won out unanimously, receiving 80% of the total vote.

As the release of HarleQuest! draws closer, and our mitts frankly perspire at the prospect of getting a physical CD copy of the game in them, the universe (or rather, Ross!) has thrown us a curveball with regards to how the publishing of the game will now be handled.

Originally WAVE Game Studios were announced to be producing all the physical versions of HarleQuest!, but Ross has now chosen to self-publish the game through his brand new indie development and publishing studio, Orc Face Games. On Twitter, the brand new Orc Face Games account tweeted the following:

"Hi everyone! With the recent decision to self-publish HarleQuest! for the SEGA Dreamcast, we have started Orc Face Games - a new development and publishing studio! Stay tuned for a video announcement next week, along with the results of our recent Dreamcast indie game survey."

The survey that Ross is referring to in this tweet is one he put out at the beginning of the month, which asked a variety of questions that aimed to "gain a better understanding of the people who play independently made Dreamcast games in 2024". It's a great sign that Ross has looked to the community for feedback when setting up this new studio, and I'll be intrigued to find out what the consensus is from those who voted in the video he'll be putting out next week on his YouTube channel.

We reached out to Ross to get the scoop on everything Orc Face Games…

DCJY: Great to chat to you once again, Ross, and congratulations on the new venture! What can the Dreamcast community expect from Orc Face Games going forward?

Ross: As a publisher, our top priority is to build trust with developers. We live in the indie/homebrew community daily and want to do our part to help developers actually get things over the line into a polished physical release at a reasonable cost. A little down the road we will offer help with every aspect of development including funding, our 3D engine + tools, creative (art, music, sound, branding), porting... but for now we're looking to team up with developers who have an existing game or demo in the works and want to get the physical version made and into players' hands. In any case, if you're a developer at any stage, please reach out to us! We'd love to hear from you even if it's just for a chat!

That sounds great. Obviously HarleQuest! will be the first release from Orc Face Games, but do you have any plans for future titles that you can let us in on?

There is a concrete plan for what's happening after HarleQuest! and it involves a full 3D remake of an indie Megadrive/Genesis game for the Dreamcast. We know exactly what that's going to look like and it's going to be insane! After that, we will be starting a larger project again with a new IP which is still in the early stages, but it'll be bigger than HarleQuest! - that's all I'll say on that for now! As a developer, our focus is finishing HarleQuest! and making it the best game possible.

We’re certainly excited to get our hands on HarleQuest!. For those who missed the Kickstarter, where can they pre-order a copy? 

HarleQuest! pre-orders are now up on the Orc Face website for anyone who missed the Kickstarter! The site is still pretty simple but it works. We'll spruce it up a little before the HarleQuest! launch. In the meantime, you can visit [the Orc Face Games website] to pre-order the game in your preferred region style.

***

I look forward to seeing Orc Face develop into the next big-deal Dreamcast indie publisher. With an experienced developer like Ross at the helm, passionate developers could really get the help they need to help get their games pushed out to the community at large. With that in mind, I wish Ross the best of luck with this new studio. You can follow both him and Orc Face on Twitter for updates.

Are you excited to see what the future holds for Orc Face Games? Let us know in the comments below, or on any of our usual social media hangouts.

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DCJY welcomes SEGA SATURN, SHIRO!

 

In the most exciting crossover since Jay-Z and Linkin Park did Collision Course, in episode 129 of our podcast, the DreamPod, Brian and Lewis are joined by two stalwarts of both the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast community: SaturnDave and Patrick (TraynoCo) of SEGA SATURN, SHIRO

SHIRO! originally started in 2017 as a podcast dedicated to the Saturn, but has since grown into a website, YouTube channel and community dedicated to spreading the love of Sega's misunderstood 32-bit wonder, and later the Dreamcast. We at the Junkyard are fans of the work these guys do, so it was great to finally get them on the pod to talk all about it, as well as their love for the Dreamcast.

In this episode, we go into detail about SHIRO!'s origins, the present and future of the Saturn, the strengths and similarities of both consoles, and much much more. We also put SHIRO! on the spot and ask them to name their top three Dreamcast titles.
You can listen to this episode of the DreamPod and all of our previous episodes on Buzzsprout, along with all great podcatchers... and remember. You MUST play Sega Saturn!

Replacement VMU Shells head to Kickstarter - VGNYsoft give us the Lowdown!

 

Based out of New York video game boutique Videogamesnewyork, publisher VGNYsoft have been well known in the Dreamcast scene for a long time now for publishing a whole load of indie games stateside for our beloved Sega console. For a list of what they have released in the past, check out Mike's Complete Guide to Commercially Released Dreamcast Indie Games.

I was particularly excited last year to see them venture into releasing custom VMUs, starting with a limited edition of Hermes featuring a Hermes-branded VMU, which I showcased on the blog back when it came out. This was then followed by a Blockbuster-branded VMU (actually authorised by the Blockbuster's owner Dish) which was offered as a prize for the fourth World Video Game Championship at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. I rightly presumed these two VMUs were a sign of more to come, and today at 12pm EST VGNYsoft will launch their campaign for replacement VMU shells in a variety of unique colours.

We got a chance to talk with Daniel Mastin of VGNYsoft and get the scoop on this brand new Kickstarter campaign, along with some teases about upcoming indie releases.

Credit: Adam Koralik

DCJY: Hi Dan! Thanks for chatting to us about your Kickstarter. I think we can speak for a lot of Dreamcast fans when we say that we are excited for the prospect of replacement VMU shells. What can people expect from the Kickstarter? And what was your reasoning for going to Kickstarter as opposed to just selling them via your normal store?

Dan: The Kickstarter is a way to connect with the community before all of the production numbers become finalized. The initial production is set to include six colors, with stretch goals and a community vote to help add additional colors. Each VMU shell includes five injection-molded parts: the front, back, cap, battery door, and the D-Pad, and will have an MSRP of $16. In future productions, we will continue to introduce new colors as we produce more. 

Where did the inspiration come from to produce replacement VMU shells?

The idea came to light as a culmination of circumstances. Our retail store handles a considerable number of repairs and shell swaps for customers. Additionally, our publishing company (VGNYsoft) continues to produce and release numerous indie games for the Dreamcast, and our warehouse happened to have an abundance of new, sealed clear green VMUs. With some creativity, we pieced together the concept of elevating Dreamcast indie releases to the next level! 

So were the Hermes and Blockbuster VMUs early tests for this idea?

Hermes was our proof of concept, we used new [official] VMUs for that production. The Blockbuster VMUs were a very small batch built using some of our early production samples.

You are based in the USA, will fans overseas be able to get hold of these VMU shells?

The Kickstarter will ship to most international countries, and we will also collaborate with international retailers to offer additional overseas solutions once the production is complete. 

You previously released a Hermes-branded VMU. Can we expect to see more custom VMUs to tie in with other Dreamcast indie releases?  

Custom VMUs are the secret sauce behind the entire production and the foundation for funding the very expensive injection molding process. We have a lineup of future limited edition releases that will feature custom-printed VMU shells. The first one will be announced in just a few weeks before the VMU shell Kickstarter is finished! 

That's exciting to hear! Finally, is there anything else that Dreamcast fans can expect from VGNYsoft in 2024?

VGNYsoft recently released North American versions of Ploid and Reknum from Nape Games (who also has a new game currently on Kickstarter). We have a few titles in the works for 2024 as well, which will be announced soon. In general, we are always looking to build deeper engagement with Dreamcast indie developers. Our goal is to help uplift their projects and bring them to a wider audience through high-quality physical productions.

***

Thanks to Dan for giving us the lowdown on the Kickstarter campaign. Click here to go check it out for yourself, and be sure to let us know in the comments below which colours you'd like to see VGYNSoft produce next.

Fragmented Almanac: Teaser Trailer and an Interview with Developer Roby Provost

Last month, the Junkyard office was abuzz with excitement when we caught wind of the news that Fragmented Almanac, a compilation of two eerie narrative-based puzzle games, was soon due to be released by fledgling indie studio ANTIRUINS on our beloved Sega Dreamcast. Alas, we don't actually have an office (yet), but the flurry of activity on our Discord and WhatsApp channels did a commendable job of emulating an exuberant water cooler experience nonetheless.

The duo of games contained within the Fragmented Almanac wrapper, The Hideout and Summoning Signals, have been in gestation for many years now, and whenever we had the opportunity to sample the work-in-development, our appetites for more only grew. At times it looked like the projects were sadly destined to join the extensive list of cancelled Dreamcast games, and so it was particularly sweet to hear that they are in fact now complete, and due for both physical and digital release in March of 2024.

Of course, after a lengthy session ogling the artsy ANTIRUINS website, I only wanted to learn more. Fortunately, lead developer Roby Provost has been kind enough to spill the beans in the following interview that covers everything from the conceptual foundations of Fragmented Almanac, down to the nuts and bolts of the game's printing and distribution. To put the cherry on top, Roby also provided us with a new teaser trailer that we are delighted to reveal for the first time here on the Junkyard.

* * *

DCJY: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us Roby. To kick things off, can you tell us what players should expect from The Hideout and Summoning Signals, the two games that are being released together as Fragmented Almanac?

Roby: They are quite unique games. They're not shmups, that's for sure! I honestly think that Fragmented Almanac might be one of the most polished indie Dreamcast releases we've seen so far. As I tried to explain on our website, it is at the intersection of video game, art and alchemy. It's a game that makes you dream, or at the very least, makes you think. We wanted to make a project that lingers in the back of your mind, trying to decode the meaning of "scroll". The whole release is designed like a puzzle: full of secrets, truths and symbols. 

This being said, they are not long games. We wished we could have made the full version of Reaperi Cycle, a game which The Hideout was initially a demo of, but it was way too ambitious - especially when we first started back in 2016. Still, we think that people who enjoy strange, narrative-driven games with some puzzles will enjoy Fragmented Almanac. It's definitely a unique proposition, as games like Seaman or Seventh Cross Evolution were. Of course, I really think Seventh Cross Evolution could have been way better. Maybe we'll have to make Eighth Cross Evolution one day 😉.

And if you had to categorise them by genre, would it be fair to say they are "point-and-click" adventures, or is that too restrictive?

I honestly struggle to find the proper term for these games! You don't even click to move around, so perhaps it's more like a cursor adventure? But even that doesn't have a great ring to it. Maybe they are puzzle games? Strange, narrative-based puzzle games?

Whatever they are, they have a distinctive eerie and mysterious style. What is the inspiration behind that?

I think eerie and mysterious is just in our DNA! More seriously, most of the inspiration for our games is drawn either from ideas of the past, or visions of the future - and in particular, things that have been forgotten or that are not bound to happen. The concept of the almanac, a book or document that predicts the time, felt like a great starting point. It's interesting to think about what motivated the creation of almanacs. Were their authors trying to create a system to anticipate the future? Were they trying to provide a guide, a sense of security? Some almanacs are based on the words of religious texts while others get their predictions from the stars. It was interesting to research the many forms that almanacs take, both visually and in the information we provide.

For us, the Almanac is used to somewhat guide and inform the player. As you play the game, you'll unlock fragments and access more lore and art from the game. Muet (Simon Chiasson Greffard), one of our team members, is the one who infused The Hideout with most of its alchemical philosophies. We dug deep within alchemical imagery and symbols and tried to craft something out of it.