Intrepid Izzy & Rush Rush Rally Reloaded are now available on ZOOM Platform

Well this is a nice little surprise. Intrepid Izzy and Rush Rush Rally Reloaded (or R4, to those in the know) - two of Senile Team's most highly regarded Dreamcast titles - are now available for the PC via ZOOM Platform, while a third Senile Team release, HypnoTiles, has also made the jump to everybody's favourite DRM-free storefront.

If you've been around the Dreamcast scene for any length of time, you'll no doubt be familiar with Senile Team's pedigree. They are the studio responsible for some of the Dreamcast's finest post-mortem moments, with the Beats of Rage engine signalling their arrival in the indie space on Sega's final console back in 2003; before going on to release Polyko's Super Jelly Bean Quest in the Sketchbook of Illusion in 2012, and more recently Rush Rush Rally Racing in 2009 and 2017 (in the form of the updated Reloaded) and Intrepid Izzy, also in 2017.

We were/are big fans of both titles, stating in our glowing review of Izzy: "...the game has everything a great action platformer should have: great gameplay and controls, charming artwork and beautiful animation, varied and well-themed levels, and a great sense of humour...The many years of development experience that Senile Team have under their collective belts shines through here - resulting in an incredibly polished final product."

Similarly, we gushed the following about R4: "Rush Rush Rally Racing is a fantastic title even if you don't have the option of playing the multi-player games on offer. The vehicle handling is amazingly intuitive, it sounds great and the game is peppered with numerous imaginative details (just don't hit the cows!); and while it's very difficult if you're generally shit at games like I am, with perseverance there's a lot of fun to be had." We even spoke to the man himself Roel van Mastbergan, Senile Team's lead designer, artist and programmer back in 2017 - check out the interview here.

Intrepid Izzy launched to overwhelming critical acclaim on Dreamcast.

To celebrate the re-release of both Intrepid Izzy and Rush Rush Rally Reloaded on ZOOM Platform (and the release of puzzle title HypnoTiles), there's currently a special offer of 25% off the asking prices. Naturally, we asked Roel for his thoughts, alongside ZOOM Platform's Jordan Freeman, who is a former colleague and business partner of the late, great Bernie Stolar and someone who is known to enjoy a bit of Dreamcastic action in his down time:

"Well, what can I say? It's always exciting to bring a game to a new audience, and now it's three games at once! Thrice the fun! Jordan and ZOOM Platform in general have been a pleasure to work with, so I hope this marks the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration."

- Roel van Mastbergan, Senile Team

"It is our pleasure to announce that Senile Team’s legendary catalog has come to ZOOM Platform. Roel and his team, like us, hold Dreamcast near and dear to their hearts. It’s a match made in Heaven. Tremendous classics such as Intrepid Izzy and Rush Rush Rally Reloaded combined with exciting new releases like HypnoTiles are exactly why the incredibly fertile Dreamcast indie scene remains alive and well to this day!"

- Jordan Freeman, ZOOM Platform

If you enjoyed 16-bit Micro Machines, you'll love Rush Rush Rally Racing.

If you've never played either Rush Rush Rally Reloaded or Intrepid Izzy on your Dreamcast (there's no excuse, to be honest), then now is the perfect time to give them both a whirl on your computing device of choice. As long as it's a Windows PC. And don't forget HypnoTiles, which looks like a fun variant on the Tetris formula with a bit of Lumines thrown in. Find out more over at ZOOM Platform.

Disclaimer for anyone interested: this isn't a paid or sponsored post or anything like that. I just like Intrepid Izzy and Rush Rush Rally Reloaded so if more people get to experience them, that's a bonus. Cheers me dears!

Atlus' Japan-Only Dreamcast RPG deSPIRIA Receives English Fan Translation of its First Chapter

These days, Atlus is a worldwide brand, what with the massive success of its Persona RPG series, but once upon a time, not every title they developed was done so with an international audience in mind. They developed the earlier Persona games for the Japanese market, while their first Sega Dreamcast game, Maken X, was done so knowing it would be distributed across the globe. The only other game Atlus released for the Dreamcast was deSPIRIA, which remained exclusive to Japan and was its own beast entirely. Its dated gameplay and visuals for its release year of 2000 make it hard to believe it would've ever been considered for a Western release, and had it been, the gaming press would've torn it a new one. But without those same contemporary "everything must be polygonal" goggles on, deSPIRIA is a very novel —if not incredibly niche— horror experience in the Dreamcast's library, and today I am excited to report that its first chapter is now playable in English thanks to a team consisting of rio de popomocco (translation) and DinoJesus (programming), with more to come later.

"Ma'am, this is a Wendy's..."

The game puts you in the shoes of Allure Valentine, a woman working for an organisation known as "the Church" and has you exploring a dystopian underground version of Japan, getting into psychic mind battles with the creepy individuals you encounter. That's the operative word here, "creepy", and one deSPIRIA embraces proudly, with "grotesque" being how its opening disclaimer message describes some of its content. I mean, the protagonist snorts some kind of parasitic worm thing up her nose in the opening cutscene... for plot reasons. Graphically, it is filled to the brim with those cold, uncanny, pre-rendered visuals often seen in horror games from the 90s. Graphics that were aged on arrival back on release, but in retrospect, only further serve to up deSPIRIA's unsettling atmosphere.

The exploration takes place in first person, and is basically point-and-click, with a sort of slideshow quality to proceedings. You can rotate on the spot to survey your surroundings, then click on an area of the environment to move there, triggering an FMV of you moving towards it. Those who have played and enjoyed titles like D and Kowloon's Gate before will feel right at home here. Well, it's hardly homely, but you know what I mean. The game also features some pretty psychedelic —at times nightmarish— battles in which the protagonist jacks into other people's psyches.

To play deSPIRIA's first chapter in English, you will need to go to the translation project's GitHub repo and download a patching tool, which will apply the translation patch to your existing GDI of the game. The patching tool isn't available for Mac or Linux, so you will have to find a roundabout way to get it to work on those operating systems, or alternatively get a friend with Windows to do it for you.

Interestingly, the creators of this patch offer three different modes for gameplay speed, which reduce random encounters and rebalance the game for those who just want to focus on the story. 

Unfortunately, as of writing this, I have been unable to get my patched GDI to play properly on GDEMU, with it crashing on a certain scene right at the start. I was, however, able to play the game successfully (and take the screenshots you see in this very article) via the Flycast emulator.

Those who have heard me witter away on the podcast before will already know how stoked I am for this translation, and I will be eagerly awaiting any future preview instalments (there's no word as of yet as to whether this is how they wish to release the rest of the patch going forward), and of course the full patch somewhere down the line. Will you be giving deSPIRIA a go? Let us know in the comments or on our socials.

New Dreamcast Survival Horror Title 'White Creek' is Getting a Visual Upgrade

We recently reported on the reveal of JoshProd, PixelHeart and Storybird Studios' upcoming survival horror title White Creek, and the general consensus is that it looks (no pun intended) pretty cool. Interestingly, the mainstream press also seem to have cottoned on to White Creek's existence, and in some cases made disingenuous claims that it represents the 'first new Dreamcast release for 25 years.' I guess those outlets missed stuff like Rush Rush Rally Racing, Pier Solar, Intrepid Izzy, Xeno Crisis, Xenocider, The Textorcist, Driving Strikers, Sturmwind et al.

Anyhow, White Creek is now a known quantity, and promises to be an intriguing mix of D2, Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark and The Ring: Terror's Realm. Actually, scratch that last one. One of the main criticisms I saw levelled at White Creek when it was first revealed via trailers and screenshots, was that it didn't really look like a Dreamcast game, and instead looked more like an original PlayStation title. A fair criticism as far as I'm concerned. Looks like the fine folks at JoshProd also took heed at these observations and have given White Creek a bit of a visual upgrade just in time for the upcoming release of a playable demo.

Original left, upgrade right (click for a bigger version)

Original left, upgrade right (click for a bigger version)

These screens are taken from the video posted on the PixelHeart YouTube channel, and as you can see the background details have been reworked to give the impression that the game really was intended for the Dreamcast, and not one of those piss-poor, cash grab PS1 ports we so commonly received back during the Dreamcast's natural lifespan (yes I am indeed looking directly at you, Nightmare Creatures II).

Original left, upgrade right (click for a bigger version)

Original left, upgrade right (click for...you get the idea)

I'm personally hoping for an increased level of visual detail in the character models too, though I'm not expecting to see the kind of fidelity on display in something like Code: Veronica (the Dreamcast game, not that new one that's just been announced, obvs). 

So what do you think about this graphical upgrade? Are you more interested now that White Creek appears to look a bit more like an actual Dreamcast game? White Creek doesn't have a firm release date as yet, but it will be releasing on modern platforms as well as Dreamcast and you can find the game's Kickstarter campaign here. 

NTSC-J baseball title Pro Yakyuu Team de Asobou Net! is back online

Another day, another dollar. And by 'dollar,' I of course mean 'obscure Dreamcast baseball game has been brought back online.' This time, the game in question is Smilebit's Pro Yakyuu Team de Asobou Net!, which for those who may be unfamiliar, is a baseball game that was released only in Japan back in 2000, and was part of the popular 'Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team!' lineage.

Pro Yakyuu Team de Asobou Net! differed from other entries in the popular super-deformed series by offering Dreamcast players the opportunity to enter into online games of rounders-on-steroids via the Dreamcast's Dricas service, essentially meaning you could attempt to hit a ball thrown by another human from the comfort of your own couch. Who needs to even bother going outside when such a concept is proffered? Not me, that's who. And neither do you.

I bet leg warmers are cheap in this reality.
And gloves with fingers. Mittens though? Gold mine.

Interestingly, Pro Yakyuu Team de Asobou Net! is actually quite highly regarded as a decent baseball experience; which is surprising when you consider how much of a dog's dinner Smilebit's 90 Minutes was. They also made some other game about breakdancing rollerbladers or something, but I'm not sure what that was called or if anybody ever played it.

Anyway, this magic has been conjured by none other than Dreamcast online gaming royalty Shuouma, and if you point your weary eyeballs downwards, you'll find an excellent gameplay video from our good friend Pcwzrd, who also explains how to get involved via the DreamPi contraption in the video's description. Of course, you can also find a bit more information on this new Pro Yakyuu Team de Asobou Net! release over at Dreamcast Live, along with a handy DreamPi connection guide. To be fair, the online scene on the Dreamcast has been on fire lately, with multiple games being brought out of the archive and placed back onto lane one of the information superhighway. Which is what us old people call the internet. Ask your dad/grandad. Cough.

Thoughts? You played this obscure gem? If so, what did/do you think? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check out our look at similar (but not really) Dreamcast baseball-flavoured cartoon-characters-with-no-arms-which-aren't-Rayman-a-thon Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu here.

The Japan-Exclusive Magic: The Gathering Game for Sega Dreamcast has been Translated into English

Over the years, I've built up somewhat of a personal wishlist of Sega Dreamcast games I'd love to see translated into English, with Atlus' horror-RPG DeSpiria sitting firmly at the top, a choice I'm sure plenty of others also hold. Something a bit more niché I've been quietly rooting for though is the Japan-only Magic: the Gathering game, which simulates the long-running trading card game from Wizards of the Coast.

Quite why Japan ended up being the only region to receive this Dreamcast game based on such a popular Western TCG is anyone's guess. An American release was supposedly on the cards (sorry) according to an old article from IGN, with online features to be implemented, and the game even shipped with a folder on its disc titled "CARD_US" filled with English-language textures that were presumably intended for that American release. Now, a whole 25 years later, English-speakers can finally rejoice as a Dreamcast-Talk user by the name AstraLee has translated the game into English. 

In the past, those familiar with the TCG and the English versions of the cards (the game even featured ten exclusive cards) could muddle their way through this Dreamcast release, and in a similar fashion, AstraLee utilised a number of online Magic: the Gathering resources, along with their own knowledge of Japanese, to put together this patch. No AI or machine translation was used for the English translation itself, although for the sake of transparency, AstraLee did state that Claude was used to write some python scripts to extract the original Japanese text and format it into a .CSV file, which they then translated themselves. They did also run into some limitations with character limits when inserting the English text back into the game, so many phrases were shortened or compacted to fit better. Tutorial videos have also been left untranslated as of this first patch release.

For those who'd like to learn more about the Dreamcast game itself, I highly recommend watching this video from Magic: the Gathering YouTuber "Magic Untapped", which goes into some nice detail about it. To play this translation, simply head over to the GitHub repo to download the patch, which you can then use with Derek Pascarella's Universal Dreamcast Patcher to apply it to your own existing GDI of the game.

NAOMI Fan Ports are Finally Coming to the Sega Dreamcast with Cleopatra Fortune Plus (Vibe-Coded Edition)

What a crazy time we're living in. I woke up this morning to a message telling me that we've officially entered the era of NAOMI games being ported to the Dreamcast by fans, with Cleopatra Fortune Plus being the very first.

For those unfamiliar, the NAOMI was Sega's arcade platform first introduced in 1998, built on architecture very similar to that of the Dreamcast. That technical similarity was what made the Dreamcast the first reasonably affordable home console to deliver an experience that looked and played genuinely close to the arcade. During its commercial lifespan, a number of NAOMI titles were ported to Dreamcast, including classics such as Crazy Taxi, The House of the Dead 2, Dead or Alive 2, and Power Stone. Others, such as Jambo! Safari and Virtua Golf, were announced for the console but were ultimately cancelled.

What with the constant influx of ports we're seeing now on a near-monthly basis, the logical thought from those who inhabit the Dreamcast fan community has been "could the fans just port those missing NAOMI games to Dreamcast?" They were able to do it with Atomiswave arcade titles back in 2020, so why not NAOMI? Well, the Atomiswave arcade system, which launched in 2004, was essentially a repackaged Dreamcast for the arcade, with virtually identical hardware specifications. The NAOMI, on the other hand, packed far more RAM than the Dreamcast, leading many in the homebrew community to dismiss the possibility of fan-developed NAOMI ports as "impossible".

That was until today, when a Dreamcast-Talk forum user who goes by CaptainKoffski posted that they've ported Cleopatra Fortune Plus to Dreamcast. Cleopatra Fortune Plus was the NAOMI arcade-exclusive sequel to Taito's puzzle game Cleopatra Fortune, which itself received a Japan-only port to the Dreamcast. CaptainKoffski was transparent from the off that the project had been created using what the internet has dubbed "vibe coding", the practise of using AI models to assist anywhere from a little bit to entirely with software development. In CaptainKoffski's case, they admitted "the entire port was done with AI, with minimal effort on my part."

AI is a huge topic of conversation at the moment, with a number of ethical and environmental concerns being raised surrounding its use. Just last month, Sega drew criticism from fans for revealing that AI was used in the development of the upcoming Crazy Taxi: World Tour. AI has also begun to seep into hobbyist circles, where it has received a mixed reception. What really is puzzling (excuse the pun) about this NAOMI port, though, is that despite its lack of human touch, it actually runs well, with seemingly no issues.

While we can't ignore the fact that this port's very existence is a huge breakthrough, we can only hope those who live and breathe Dreamcast development can unpick some of the information CaptainKoffski provided in their accompanying GitHub repo to find out how the heck the AI pulled this off, with the hopes it may aid future porting efforts. That said, I am aware that a very human effort to bring a major NAOMI title to the Dreamcast has been confirmed as being very close to completion, so I doubt this will be the last we see of NAOMI ports to the console in 2026.

"White Creek" Revealed — New Footage and Info on PixelHeart's Upcoming Indie Dreamcast Survival Horror

We here at The Dreamcast Junkyard team have expressed many times over the years how the Sega Dreamcast indie/homebrew library has been desperately in need of a fully fledged horror title. We've previously enjoyed the Wolfenstein total conversion mod Witching Hour, as well as cool demos like Tunnels, but back in March, publisher PixelHeart/JoshProd announced that they would be bringing a 3D survival horror game to the Dreamcast that would be a "love letter to the classics", even going as far as to feature classic-style fixed camera angles.

Today, PixelHeart has finally revealed more details and even gameplay footage of this previously unnamed survival horror, which we now know will be called "White Creek", and will hit Kickstarter sometime in "the coming weeks", although a definitive date is yet to be confirmed.

So let's run you through all the other details we know. Obviously, please be aware that any gameplay or screenshots shown in this article are not finalised and subject to change, as the game is still a work in progress. 

As mentioned above, some gameplay footage of White Creek was revealed today on JoshProd's social media, and very much looks to take queues from the classic survival horrors of old, like Resident Evil, and particularly Silent Hill (I mean, just look at that sign with the town's map on it). The clip shows the game's protagonist, an exorcist called Alicia Morelli, entering the town of White Creek, gunning down zombie-like foes. The teaser synopsis on the game's Kickstarter preview page explains that Alicia has gone to White Creek to attempt to "contain" an outbreak of violence caused by what seems to be possessed town residents.

The synopsis also seems to imply that players will have a choice to "save [...] souls" or "condemn them". It doesn't elaborate much further than this, but it would be a cool twist to give players an option to save these possession victims rather than just pumping them full of lead. Or maybe there could be some kind of "pacifist" run option, à la Undertale? We will have to wait and see. Anyway, check out the gameplay below. Looking good, huh?

The Dreamcast deserved better in 2001.

In 2025, we're giving it exactly that.

White Creek — a brand new survival horror game.
Work in progress

Wishlist on Kickstarter is LIVE 🕯️#WhiteCreek #Dreamcast #SurvivalHorror pic.twitter.com/2nDUdM5zn8

— Philippe JoshProd (@knifesuisse) June 19, 2026

JoshProd has also informed us that they are working with frequent collaborator Storybird Studio to develop White Creek. Storybird's previous work for Dreamcast includes the underrated Dreamcast indie gem Finding Teddy, along with a number of titles for modern systems, including Finding Teddy 2, Ganryu 2, Guns of Mercy and Golden Force. 

Here's some screenshots of the game JoshProd sent us.

And here's a video of the devs modelling the movement of the game's main character.

We'll be keeping a keen eye on this project, and if you want to too, head over to White Creek's Kickstarter page to set up email reminders and be notified when the campaign launches. As is usually the case with PixelHeart's Kickstarter campaigns, when White Creek's finally goes live, you can fully expect there to be some cool physical editions of the game available in a variety of regional Dreamcast styles.

Unreleased Atomiswave Football title Premier Eleven has been Preserved and Ported to Sega Dreamcast (along with Miracle Stadium!)

Sports games often get short shrift from retro game collectors. Just think about the rows and rows of FIFA and Madden entries lining pre-owned game store shelves, with not even a price sticker of a quid being low enough to convince buyers to leave with them.

On the polar opposite end of that spectrum is Premier Eleven, an unreleased football/soccer game for the Atomiswave — an arcade system that was based on the Sega Dreamcast's architecture. DCJY founder Tom Charnock wrote an excellent article back in 2022 documenting the community's quests to find and preserve it, with the ultimate goal being to port it to Dreamcast, as had been done previously with many other Atomiswave titles. At the time of Tom writing that article, someone had a Premier Eleven prototype board up on eBay for just under 15 grand (USD). Now that's one expensive sports game...

It was very generous of them to skim off those 3 cents.

Well, thankfully for those like Tom who have long lamented the Dreamcast's fairly underwhelming line-up of football games, the owner of a (or perhaps the) Premier Eleven PCB has finally preserved the game online for public consumption, with the help of Dreamcast-Talk forum user "dimps", whose online namesake is presumably a nod to the game's developer. Also, the coincidence isn't lost on us that this long-lost footie title is finally seeing the light of day during the FIFA World Cup season.

If you'd like to play Premier Eleven on your Dreamcast, simply head over to the dedicated Dreamcast-Talk forum thread and download the supplied .GDI file, which can be played via emulators or on real hardware using ODEs such as GDEMU and MODE. The fact that we can finally do so honestly feels like a miracle!

Photo of the original Miracle Stadium Atomiswave cart, supplied by dimps.

Speaking of miracles, the same duo has also preserved another Atomiswave game: a baseball-themed title called Miracle Stadium. This one did actually see a release back in the day, but has remained the last publicly released Atomiswave game to be dumped online. Until now...

Once again, you can find the .GDI for Miracle Stadium on Dreamcast-Talk. dimps says in their post that the game, which was designed for kids, is "more of a curiosity than anything else" and "probably not something you'd ever really sit down and play." Well, I'm about to download it and stick it on my GDEMU, so I'll report back at some point to confirm if it's any good.

Photo of the original Miracle Stadium unit, supplied by dimps.

We doth our hats to the owner of these PCBs and dimps for their preservation efforts! Let us know if you'll be loading up either of these Atomiswave titles on your Dreamcast by leaving us a comment below.

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 (with the last day of availability being the 8th of July). 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.

***

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.

English Fan Translation Released for Sega Dreamcast Shooter Triggerheart Exelica!

It's become tradition at this point for top hacker Derek Pascarella to gift us with at least a handful of English fan translations of Japanese Sega Dreamcast games each year. He just gave us Di Gi Charat Fantasy back in December, and now it's the turn of Warashi's cult-favourite shoot 'em up Triggerheart Exelica.

A port of a NAOMI arcade game, Triggerheart Exelica released for Dreamcast exclusively in Japan in —get this— 2007. In fact, it was released so late into the Dreamcast's commercial lifespan, we actually covered the news of its upcoming release here on the Junkyard! 

It was also one of 13 Dreamcast titles to ship in a DVD case.

Triggerheart has been an easy import for years due to it requiring little knowledge of Japanese to access its gameplay and enjoy it, but Derek's new patch will now allow you to follow along with its story mode in English, along with a few other bells and whistles. The localisation created for the game's 2023 Steam/Switch re-release served as a base translation, while dialogue exclusive to the Dreamcast version was translated into English by Walnut, who also made some additional refinements and translated the tutorial section. Text featured within graphics was also translated into English, with the altered graphics themselves reassembled by Malenko.

The game has a reputation for being bastard hard, and so Derek has seen to that as well by hacking in an "invincibility" mode that can be toggled on or off in the game's options and pause menus. Don't worry, this mode doesn't make you actually invincible to enemy fire, but instead grants you unlimited lives, so you never have to use a continue. This will allow those who struggle with the gameplay to still experience the storyline. Not all of us can be gods at shooters!

Analog stick support has also been implemented, for those who prefer to use it over the D-pad, and for us European players, Derek has also fixed a quirk where the game would default to 50Hz when booted up on a PAL console. With this patch, it now defaults to 60.

If you want to play this, simply mosey on over to the GitHub repository and download the patch. Instructions can be found in there on how to patch an existing GDI of the game. While you're at it, also grab yourself a free download of the game's rippin' soundtrack.

Four More Games Coming to the Sega Dreamcast! — NATP, Sonic R, SuperSolar, and OverServed

"Why make new games or port old ones to the Sega Dreamcast?" some contrarian Twitter user sneers. To which we reply, "why not?" Case closed, innit. Anyway, here's four games you can hopefully expect to be playing on your Dreamcast sometime soon...

Noah & the Poohloudies

Credit: Noah & the Poohloudies on YouTube

A few years ago, a guy launched a Kickstarter to make a game that would be available on every gaming system ever conceived by mortal hands. People were understandably skeptical about whether that was even possible, and, unsurprisingly, the campaign didn’t succeed. However, it turns out that someone has genuinely been attempting to pull off something similar. That person is developer Walfrido Abejón, who has spent several years plugging away at his game Noah & the Poohloudies, a charming robot-themed platformer which is not only in development for our beloved Sega Dreamcast, but also the 3DO, original PlayStation, Nokia N-Gage, Nintendo 64, and the Saturn.

Walfrido has kindly sent over a prototype build of the Dreamcast version of the game, which we’ll definitely be taking a closer look at soon. In the meantime, you can check out the video below from our pal The Sega Guru, which showcases footage of all the different versions in development. Even at this stage, what’s been shown looks genuinely fantastic, and we really hope it will eventually be developed into a full release. Be sure to subscribe to Walfrido's YouTube channel to be the first to see future development vlogs.

Sonic R

Credit: SonicRetro

The ports just keep on a-coming, and this one is an exciting one for those who were hoping to maybe see a bit more Sega amid the recent flood of (excellent) Nintendo 64 ports to Dreamcast. Absolute madlad Jnmartin84 is back again, and he has decompiled the PC version of Traveller's Tales Sonic-themed racer Sonic R and got it running on Mac. This game also came out on the Sega Saturn, and other than delivering a jukebox of banging tunes, it also provided an early taste of what could be for a fully 3D Sonic adventure.

But why do we care about a Mac version of Sonic R? Well, because it means the game can also now be ported to other systems, including the Dreamcast, and that is exactly what Jnmartin84 has promised. Plus, he's also teased the possibility of network play? Now that would certainly be epic to see. Watch this space!

SuperSolar

Developer Ninja Dynamics is currently working on an Afterburner-ish flight combat game for both mobile and Dreamcast, and it's looking "sleek af", as the kids would say. To get a taste of what you will eventually play on your Dreamcast, there is a version currently available for you to play in your web browser.

Check out footage below of the Dreamcast version, and follow the dev on Twitter to see new updates as they come out. It is shaping up to be an absolute stunner, though.

Here's the latest Dreamcast build of SuperSolar with a brand new water splash effect! I swear it's not a DBZ game! 😆 pic.twitter.com/WeRNmiioiX

— 🇪🇺🇵🇹 Ninja Dynamics (@ninjadynamics) April 20, 2026

OverServed

Finally, we come to OverServed, an upcoming Neo Geo multiplayer arena battler that looks to channel the chaotic fun of Bomberman. It'll support up to eight players duking it out at once, and what's more is it'll also support online play. But this is not just online play, this is cross-platform online play. That's right, we've got another game that's coming to a whole heap of platforms! We've already mentioned Neo Geo, but OverServed will also be released for —and cross-play over the net with— Saturn, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Apple TV and Android. The game is due to be released in November this year.

But what about our beloved Dreamcast? Well, good news: a version is in the works from developer FULLSET, but it is most likely to release after the other versions. However, they have said that if 1,000 people go to the Dreamcast version's Sumthings page and add it to their “wanted” list, they’ll fast-track it to meet that same November release. Now, getting 1,000 people to sign up to Sumthings and click "wanted", may be a tall feat, but I'm sure we could get the community to at least retweet and like the heck out of this Twitter post.

I can’t wait to face off on OverServed on my yellowed, scuffed-up Dreamcast against some dude rocking a console worth a grand. Nothing like a bit of class warfare to go with my retro games. Anyway, here's some gameplay footage.

Prototyping some exploding cakes in Overserved tonight. That lava cake situation needs some fixing for sure :) Many level specific elements and tons of other stuff still to be implemented. 8-player online play across #neogeo, #saturn & all modern platforms. pic.twitter.com/O5e9jRkHqS

— FULLSET | Neo·Geo Dev (@FULLSET_Collect) March 28, 2026

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Which of these games coming to Dreamcast are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments below.

A Dreamcast DVD Player Appears!

Image source: Throaty Mumbo

The Dreamcast's inability to play DVDs out of the box is often cited as one of the main reasons the system faltered in the face of competition from Sony's PlayStation 2. Indeed, even the late, great Bernie Stolar himself mused about SEGA's decision to eschew a DVD drive in favour of internet capabilities when we spoke to him several years ago. In an effort to capture the buzz around DVD technology at the time, SEGA Europe went as far as bundling the Dreamcast with a seperate standalone DVD player, but it was too little, too late - the writing was already on the wall for the little white box of dreams.

Now, anyone who knows anything about the current state of the Dreamcast scene will attest to the ingenuity of the community when it comes to squeezing more than was ever intended out of the console. We have new games coming out at a steady pace, new VMU technology, new controllers, the system is back online, there's a whole online gaming scene and replacement internal components are myriad. At this point then, it was probably only a matter of time before somebody reverse engineered a Dreamcast to be able to play DVDs...and that's exactly what one particularly talented YouTuber has accomplished.

Going by the name Throaty Mumbo, the gentleman in question describes himself as someone who likes to 'test and play around with old hardware and software,' and upon viewing the video above, I can attest to this claim. Through a series of tests and hardware experiments, Mr Mumbo successfully convinces a Dreamcast to recognise and eventually play an Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVD via a drive connected to a controller port with a bit of Raspberry Pi action thrown in for good measure. It's a really interesting journey of discovery and raises the question of whether an officially released DVD drive attachment could have turned the Dreamcast's fortunes around back in the day.

Be sure to check out Throaty Mumbo's channel here.

Image source: Derek Pascarella

But wait - there's more! In other, somewhat relevant Dreamcast video player related news, Dreamcast development legend Derek Pascarella (with help from Chris Daioglou of Dreamware Enterprises fame) has recently released a patch which removes the proprietary infrared dongle requirement from the DreamMovie VCD/MP3 player, allowing for standard Dreamcast controller support. Check out Derek's work, read a history of the DreamMovie hardware and software, and download the fruits of his labour over at Github.