Taking the prize for the first news story I could be bothered to report on in 2023 (don’t worry, there are plenty more to come - just needed a bit of a break after the festive period!), Nape Games have announced that the ‘retro’ version of their successfully Kickstarted Switch/PlayStation 4 title Gemaboy Zero X will also be gracing the Dreamcast. A companion release to the NES variant, Gemaboy Zero is a slightly paired back iteration of the current-gen game, which promises backers an ‘action, exploration and platform Cyberpunk Ploidmania’ experience. Their words, not mine.
Nape Games are no strangers to the Dreamcast scene, having previously released Reknum and Ploid on the platform; and Gemaboy Zero promises more of the same high quality Metroid-style gameplay that fans of this particular developer will be familiar with. Personally, I haven’t played any of the previous Nape Games Dreamcast releases; but you have to hand it to them - while the Spanish outfit might not be the most recognisable of indie studios out there, they have clearly poured a lot of time and effort into creating their own stable of interesting and original IP, with the Ploid canon in particular carving out its own niche and deep world building.
From the Gemaboy Zero Kickstarter page: “Within the RETRO version for the NES and Dreamcast we will include the new GemaBoy Zero adventure, which will be a parallel adventure to GemaBoy Zero X, a growth adventure for our protagonist Omega while he perfects his Skillmaster ability and thus, be the definitive PLOID X!”
If any of that makes sense to you, then congratulations - you are clearly fluent in the lexicon of the Nape Games universe! For the rest of us, basically Gemaboy Zero is a cool looking, retro-themed Metroid-style platform exploration adventure that is worthy - on first glance at least - of your attention. Visit the Kickstarter and the Nape Games website for further details.
I’m reliably informed that Nape Games usually have copies of their Dreamcast titles available to purchase after campaigns have ended, so even though Gemaboy Zero crowdfunding closed in December 2022 it’s well worth keeping an eye on these links to stay informed of when physical or digital will be available to purchase by us plebs who didn’t back it.
Are you a fan of Nape Games’ output on the Dreamcast? Will you be acquiring a copy of Gemaboy Zero? Are you a pleb like me? Let us know in the comments!
Well, another whole year has come and gone, and we're all a little older and a little wiser. All a little bit more wrinkly and decrepit. All a bit more wizened and broken. All a bit more...I think you get the idea. Anyway, as has become something of a custom here at The Dreamcast Junkyard, we thought it would be totally radical (dude) to round up the majority of the content we've posted here over the last 12 months; so you don't have to navigate the archive using that unweildy little sidebar thing.
Huge thanks must go to all the people who have continued to create content that we report on, and of course to those who have agreed to guest on our podcast. Thanks also to the team members who write the features, the news posts and the reviews; and of course thank you to you - our readers - who continue to visit the Junkyard year in, year out.
For your reading pleasure, presented below in a digestable list are some highlights from 2022. Not everything we've published is included, but if you're reading this on the desktop version of the blog you'll find the aforementioned unweildy little sidebar archive just down there on the right, from which you can find everything from not just 2022, but from the last 18 yearsof The Dreamcast Junkyard...
Shadow Gangs
Reviews
Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer - Mike cast a critical eye over Woog Worx's interesting retro-styled, auto-scrolling, Halloween-themed platform adventure, and was particularly impressed with just how well executed the whole affair was.
Postal - Lozz suited up and dove in to Dan Redfield and WAVE Game Studios' Dreamcast fantastic release of Running With Scissors' blood-soaked 90s shooter, and was pretty impressed with what he saw. Twin Stick controls and complete DLC included on the disc were particular highlights.
Yeah Yeah Beebiss II
Yeah Yeah Beebiss II - In 2022 the Dreamcast played host to a port of a sequel to a game that never actually existed. That port was the simple yet enjoyable Yeah Yeah Beebiss II and Tom found that while the game was quite basic in design, it was also quite a fun little title.
Shadow Gangs - Showcasing just how diverse the range of new Dreamcast releases were in 2022, Lozz took a look at the visually impressive side scrolling brawler Shadow Gangs. While the aesthetics were a highlight, the game's difficulty level was seen as a slight negative.
Virtua Sriker 2 ver 2000.1
Retrospectives
Virtua Striker 2 - When is a football game not a football game? When it's Virtua Striker 2 of course! Tom took to the pitch in Sega's arcade football fest to see if Virtua Striker 2 holds up.
The Flashback series on Dreamcast - The Dreamcast has now recieved officially sanctioned ports of both Flashback and sequel Fade to Black. We joined Conrad B. Hart to see how well these ports fared on the Dreamcast.
Nettou Golf - Kev switched off Giant Killers, donned his most hideous golfing attire and interrupted a good walk when he investigated Nettou Golf, an NTSC-J title which he found to be surprisingly good fun.
Maximum Speed
90 Minutes: Sega Championship Football - 90 Minutes represents one of the most turgid footballing experiences one can find on Dreamcast; however the NTSC-J version (titled J.League Spectacle Soccer) is one of the very best to grace a GD-ROM drive. How so? Find out in Tom's retrospective!
Maximum Speed - The Atomiswave played host to a number of interesting games that were never ported to other platforms, and Maximum Speed is one such title. A sort of Daytona-lite that features stock and open wheel vehicles, and some of the most annoying sound effects you're ever likely to hear.
Flyer for Premier Eleven
Features and News
The Hunt for Premier Eleven - Premier Eleven is often seen as the greatest football game the Dreamcast never got. By 'often,' we mean 'by us.' This elusive Atomiswave title does exist in very limited numbers out in the wild, but so far it remains undumped. Join us on this most whirlwindy of investigations.
Brave Little Abacus - Lewis went down the rabbit hole of discovering why this celebrated band used a Dreamcast during their live shows, and even managed to bag an interview with Brave Little Abacus frontman Adam Demirjian, who explained the reasoning behind it, as well as his general admiration for the console.
Dreamcast translation projects - The Dreamcast English translation scene appears to be going from strength to strength, and so our resident translations specialist Lewis brought us news on projects involving such NTSC-J titles as Radirgy, Chaos Field, Panzer Front, Puyo Puyo~n, Cool Cool Toon and RUN=DIM as Black Soul.
RUN=DIM as Black Soul
The Dreamcast indie scene enters a 'Golden Age' - Lozz took a deep dive into the indie scene on the Dreamcast, as more and more games are released and new publishers enter the Dreamarena (sorry).
Where are they now? - ODM's '100+ New Games' - The Official UK Dreamcast Magazine famously printed a '100+ New Games' feature in the July 2000 issue, and so Andrew decided to delve into the history books to find out what happened to them all. Did all of these games materialise...or was it all just pie in the sky?
VM2 'next-gen VMU' from Chris Daioglou - Serial Dreamcast peripheral upgrader Chris Daioglou returned in 2022 with a vision for a next-gen VMU. Titled VM2, the project was launched on Indiegogo and smashed its funding goal. Read about it here.
RIP Mr Yukawa
A farewell to Hidekazu Yukawa - News of former SEGA Japan Managing Director Hidekazu Yukawa's passing was reported in June 2022, after the great man died in June 2021 aged 78. Here, Lewis respectfully paid tribute to his legacy, and detailed every time Mr Yukawa appeared in a Dreamcast game. Rest in peace Mr Yukawa, gone but not forgotten.
Gauntlet Giveaway! - Midway's Gauntlet Legends offered a pretty sweet deal to anyone who bought the game - send in proof of purchase and receive a set of pewter miniatures based on characters from the game. Through a series of bizarre events, Tom ended up with a set of these miniatures and here's what he thought of them.
The 'All About Dreamcast' VCD - Lozz managed to bag himself a copy of a Chinese-language VCD sold in Hong Kong and Taiwan titled 'All About Dreamcast,' and being the dutiful digital preservationist that he is, then went and ripped it and uploaded the contents to YouTube.
SEGA Spud Dive
Is video of the Sega Spud Dive lost media? - The Sega Spud Dive was a publicity stunt that involved people swimming through vats of mashed potatoes to win Dreamcast related prizes, and we've covered it several times here. However, there doesn't appear to be any video of the events...which is odd considering the numerous film crews in attendance.
Remute Generations - A music CD with exclusive Dreamcast functionality and visuals created by Duranik? Yes please! Here, Tom took a look (and a listen) to Remute's latest release - Generations.
Title Defense: Dreamcast's lost boxing sim - Title Defense was intended to be a more simulation-based alternative to Ready 2 Rumble, but sadly it was never released. That didn't stop the game being featured quite regularly in magazines of the era. Tom took a look at what could have been, had Climax not shelved this intriguing title before it could muster a defense. See what I did there?
[lock-on] Volume 003
[lock-on] Volume 003 Dreamcast special - [lock-on] Volume 003 offered a veritable smorgasbord of Dreamcast content, some of which was created by the very people who write the guff on this blog. Once the disclosure was out of the way, Tom took a look between the pages and offered a wholly unbiased opinion.
Dee Dee Planet playable online - Dee Dee Planet was a pseudo sequel to ChuChu Rocket! that would offer online gaming to Dreamcast owners. Sadly, it was never released. That was until the Dreamcast community got hold of it, released it and added online functionality in 2022. Most impressive.
Dreamcast Mini: Hopes and Prospects - The promise of a 'Dreamcast Mini' has been doing the rounds online for years, but how would it work, really? Would Sega even be able to turn a profit from such an expensive endevour? Lozz threw caution to the wind and offered his thoughts.
RIP Bernie Stolar
Show Report: Nottingham Video Games Expo - The Junkyard Crew took a rare trip out into the real world to take part in NottsVGE, where we met some industry legends, drank some beer, played some games and generally had a thoroughly nice time.
TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection lands on Dreamcast - Dreamcast coding legend Ian Micheal decided that he wasn't overly impressed with Konami's decision to skip the Dreamcast when it came ot releasing TNMT: The Cowabunga Collection. So he went ahead and created his own version...which is arguably better than Konami's. So there.
Bernie Stolar sadly passes away - The late Bernie Stolar is credited as being the father of the Dreamcast, and it was with great sadness that we learned of his passing in June 2022, aged 75. In this rather sombre news update, we paid our respects to the gaming industry giant. Rest in peace Bernie Stolar, who will forever be remembered as the force behind the creation of the Dreamcast.
Dreamcast Gold Ingot from RetrOldTech
There's gold in them there Dreamcasts! - Lewis took a look at the tongue-in-cheek offering of a gold bar made from reclaimed precious metals out of Dreamcast consoles. Clearly a prank novelty item from RetrOldTech, but one we couldn't help but applaud for its downright weirdness.
Dashy no Blast demo released - Talented indie developer Voxel surprised us all with the release of playable Halloween-themed demo Dashy no Blast in October 2022. Playing like a better version of Cannon Spike, this promising demo hit all the right notes.
Cuphead on the Dreamcast?! - Developer Aionmagan created this rather nifty proof of concept Cuphead demo for the Dreamcast back in June. While it is very limited in scope (it's basically one screen), it proved that the Dreamcast could cope with Studio MDHR's amazing animations, if nothing else.
Dreamcast magazines for preservation
Dreamcast Magazines: Appreciation and Preservation - Lozz presented this rather well researched appeal for Dreamcast magazine preservation, taking a look at the various periodicals that catered for the platform and asking for Dreamcast owners to plunder their attics and cupboards for missing issues.
RetroAchievements adds Dreamcast support - Ross popped up after a lengthy hiatus to report on RetroAchievements adding Dreamcast games to its database of supported titles. For those uninitiated, RetroAchievements basically adds trophies to games from all manner of classic systems, so having Dreamcast added was a pretty big deal.
Using AI art to create Dreamcast images from hell - On a particularly boring day back in May, Tom decided to see what would happen if he prompted an AI image generator with terms like 'Dreamcast' and 'Jet Set Radio.' This article was the result. You're welcome.
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventureland: A Roller Coaster of Love - Brian bought a ticket and took a ride through Sonic Adventure's numerous roller coaster themed Action Stages, reminiscing about some of the real life theme parks he'd also visited along the way.
SEGA Powered issue 5 - Issue 5 of SEGA Powered magazine was fairly heavy on the Dreamcast content, and naturally we thought it would be nice to have a flick through its pages here at the Junkyard.
Hermes: Limited Edition - Lewis finally managed to snag a copy of the excellent indie title Hermes, and it was a copy of the rather nice limited edition which came bundled with a special Hermes-branded VMU.
Spring News Round-up - A lot of Dreamcast news happened during the month of April, and Lewis was on hand to document the creation of a Dreamcast bedding set, the release of a Mega Duck emulator and a bunch of new indie games.
Interviews
Driving Strikers - Jaz tracked down and chatted with Luke 'Kazade' Benstead to discuss the concept behind the upcoming online-enabled Rocket League style title for Dreamcast, Driving Strikers.
Video Game History Foundation - wasn't really sure where to put this one so I settled on including it here. Tom and Brian joined Frank Cifaldi and Kelsey Lewin from the Video Game History Foundation's History Hour podcast to discuss the US and European launches of the Dreamcast, and also the history of this very blog.
DreamPod episodes
If you're a regular listener to our podcast, then you'll know that we occasionally have special guests on the show to discuss their own history with the Dreamcast. Below are some of the highlights from the past year, however all of our regular 'news' episodes can also be found at Buzzsprout here.
In DreamPod 103, we welcomed writer, producer and director Jörg Tittel, who previously wrote for the Official US Dreamcast Magazine. In this wide ranging chat, Jorg discussed how he got involved in writing for the magazine, and how his friendship with the late Shinya Nishigaki resulted in a cameo appearance in Illbleed.
DreamPod 106 saw us welcome WAVE Game Studios' Daniel Crocker and SEGA Powered editor Dean Mortlock. In this episode we chatted about how WAVE Game Studios was formed and how they have taken the Dreamcast scene by storm; and we also discussed Dean's history in magazine publishing, from his time at SEGA Power through to his latest venture SEGA Powered.
Shenmue Dojo were our honoured guests on DreamPod 108, with James Brown and Matt Oliver joining us to discuss all things Shenmue. From the origins of Shenmue Dojo, to the release of Shenmue World, thoughts on the cancellation of the Shenmue animated series, and even a Shenmue quiz, if you're a fan of Yu Suzuki's magnum opus, this episode will be right up your street.
DreamPod 109 was tinged with both sadness and joy, as while it was a characteristically enjoyable romp through the year 2002 with the team from Dreamcast Years, it also marked the very last episode of the DCY Podcast (well, unless you backed the physical minidisc release of the actual final, final episode as part of the Dreamcast: Year Two book).
Our guests for DreamPod 111 were Dan 'The Mega' Driver and James 'The Segaholic' McGhie, who together are known as The SEGAGuys. In this episode, we chatted about Dan and James' entry into the world of Sega, their own podcast and YouTube channel, hypothetical Dreamcast sequels and of course there was a Sega-themed quiz.
In DreamPod 112 we were lucky enough to be joined by former SEGA Europe marketing director Giles Thomas, who spoke to us about how he was handed the task of launching the Dreamcast in Europe. From his time at MTV and VH1 music channels to joining Sega and overseeing the marketing campaign across the continent, Giles offered us a goldmine of interesting tales from the early days of the Dreamcast.
"Cupcake anyone?"
Videos
Giant Killers series - I felt it was only right to include this here simply due to the sheer amount of love Kev (pictured above, replete with his stash of cupcakes) has poured into this series. Yes, if you find yourself yearning to watch a middle-aged man from Northamptonshire play through season after arduous season of Dreamcast football management sim Giant Killers, then you are in for a treat. Head over to our YouTube channel and feast your eyes and ears on Kev's superlative series. Don't bother looking at any of the other recent stuff as it's pretty much all embedded in the articles featured above. I just wanted to give Kev some recognition for this labour of love. And mention his cupcakes again.
What's next?
Naturally, we can't predict the future. However what we can do is commit to continuing the same level of slightly obsessive coverage of any and all noteworthy Dreamcast related news happenings, and a steady stream of new podcast episodes, news, reviews and features over the next 12 months. Everything we produce here is done purely for a love of the topic, none of us do this as a regular job - we are simply a rag tag band of hobbyists (if that's the right term). If you'd like to support us though, you can do so by visiting our 'Buy me a Coffee' page here.
You can also continue to follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook group, join our Discord, subscribe on YouTube or simply leave us a nice (or horrible) review over on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you may get your podcasts). It all helps and is hugely appreciated. Here's to another great year of Dreamcast related goodness.
We recently reported that Dreamcast coding legend Ian Micheal was working on a port of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection for Sega's radical platform. We use the term 'port' very loosely though, because in light of the Dreamcast not getting an official release of The Cowabunga Collection, Ian has actually gone above and beyond and created what is essentially a definitive version of the compilation, arguably bettering what was officially released on current gen platforms by Digital Eclipse and Konami.
The result of five months of hard work, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection for Dreamcast actually includes more content than the Konami release, and due to the 'indie' nature of the Dreamcast version, it also includes content that otherwise wouldn't be possible to include in an officially sanctioned port due to licensing issues.
The front end is marvellous!
So with the Dreamcast version of The Cowabunga Collection probably being the definitive compilation of half-shell based retrogaming goodness, what exactly does it contain? In truth, an absolute treasure trove of perfectly emulated 8- and 16-bit TMNT titles from a range of classic systems (running at 60fps in some cases), episodes of TMNT cartoons digitised from VHS tapes, a Vanilla Ice music video (worth it for this alone in my opinion), scanned game manuals, full soundtracks for all games, VMU icons and logos, bespoke menus, display options...the list goes on.
Super NES emulation runs at 60fps.
Vanilla Ice finally makes his Dreamcast debut.
What's also quite interesting is that The Cowabunga Collection FAQ states that it will not run on an emulator - you'll need an actual Dreamcast to play it, so the fact that both GDEMU and burnable disc images are available is a bonus. Here's a full rundown of what you can expect in terms of playable titles included:
Super Nintendo: Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (NTSC-U/PAL), Turtles Tournament Fighters (NTSC-U/PAL)
Nintendo Entertainment System: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NTSC-U), Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NTSC-U), Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NTSC-U), Turtles Tournament Fighters (NTSC-U)
Nintendo Game Boy: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (NTSC-U/PAL), Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles II: Back from the Sewers (PAL), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (NTSC-U/PAL)
Sega Mega Drive: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyper Stone Heist (NTSC-U), Turtles Tournament Fighters (NTSC-U)
Miscellaneous / ROM hacks: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (ZX Spectrum), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Coin-op! (ZX Spectrum), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of Rage Remix (Mega Drive), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of Rage: The Final Shell Shock (Mega Drive), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyper Stone Heist Remixed (Dreamcast/Beats of Rage), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Lost in Space (Dreamcast/Beats of Rage)
As you can no doubt tell from this list of features and games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection for Dreamcast is easily one of the most impressive things to come out of the Dreamcast indie scene for quite some time, and huge props must go to Ian Micheal and artist Adam Burrell; and those from the wider Dreamcast community who supported the development process.
VMU artwork is a really nice touch!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection for Dreamcast feels so polished it could be mistaken for an officially sanctioned title; and if it weren't for the fact that there are unlicensed roms included on this collection we dare say certain Dreamcast publishers would be snapping this up for a full physical retail release. It really is that good - from the menu music to the quality of life features (there's no need to soft reset the console to go back to the main menu...which is such a small thing, but so welcome!), everything about The Cowabunga Collection for Dreamcast just oozes quality.
There's also an intriguing 'first' included in The Cowabunga Collection, whereby FMV is layered over the top of other screens, creating a very nice visual effect (the main title screen is a good example of this). Believe it or not, this is a totally new tecnique created by Ian and has never been done in a Dreamcast game before. Nice.
It even features manual scans that are fully zoomable.
Dreamcast BOR variants feature too.
Really nice added features include game controls info screens.
If you'd like to see the title screen effect, front end in motion, and also the quality of the various flavours of console emulation on display, check out Ian Micheal's video presentation below:
The Cowabunga Collection for Dreamcast is a real treat and the best bit is that it's totally free to download and enjoy yourself on real hardware. If you'd like to support Ian, you can find his Patreon page here...that said, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets snapped up by emulation specialists Digital Eclipse based on this interactive resume!
Head over to either the Dreamcast-Talk forums or Ian Micheal's radical YouTube channel for download links, which along with the game also include the lovely PAL and NTSC box art variants.
Be rude not to play Turtles games on the green Dreamcast!
Have you sampled The Cowabunga Collection on Dreamcast? If so, let us know your thoughts on this bodacious release in the comments!
Update January 2023
After the initial release of The Cowabunga Collection for Dreamcast, it appears an updated version was posted to the internet. Named the 'Dark Theme Collection,' this slightly revised iteration also features the Streets of Rage 2 rom hack Shredder's Re-Revenge. Below is a thorough investigation into this updated version from YouTube channel Madlittlepixel:
It's not often we get invited to guest on other podcasts, but when we do it's always a pleasure. In this case, those lovely folks at the Video Game History Foundation reached out to us and asked if we'd like to join them for episode 99 of the Video Game History Hour podcast to share our memories of the Dreamcast launch from the perspective of gamers on opposite sides of the pond. That pond being the Atlantic Ocean, naturally.
So in episode 99 of the Video Game History Hour, Tom and Brian joined Frank Cifaldi and Kelsey Lewin to discuss what it was like for Dreamcast fans waiting for the release of the system in both the US and Europe, the significance of 9/9/99, the delayed release in Europe, the different packaging and advertising campaigns on the two continents and just why the Dreamcast has such a lasting appeal all these years later. Listen at the link below, or on all the usual podcast services.
It was an honour to be asked to appear on the Video Game History Hour, even moreso considering how much great work the Video Game History Foundation does to help preserve the heritage of the hobby we all love. On a personal level I've followed the work of Frank and Kelsey and the Video Game History Foundation for quite some time, so it was a privilege to be able to converse with them both over the course of the podcast episode.
I should also add that the Video Game History Hour is a podcast that I regularly listen to, with each episode featuring a guest that has their own niche or area of expertise. There are some absolutely fascinating topics covered in the back catalogue, so I would implore anybody with an interest in obscure gaming topics to explore previous episodes. After you've listened to episode 99, of course.
It's been almost four years since The Dreamcast Junkyard last attended a live gaming event, and that is definitely four years too many. It was back in 2018 that we attended Play Expo Blackpool and hung out with those lovely chaps Adam Koralik and Dan 'DJ Slope' Ibbertson; and to be honest it seems like a lifetime ago. This is set to be rectified in December 2022 when The Dreamcast Junkyard attends Nottingham Video Games Expo in...erm...Nottingham, UK.
Adam was impressed with Kev's home made T-shirt.
Taking place over the weekend of 17th & 18th December (which is also the weekend of the 2022 World Cup final, footy fans) at the Richard Herrod Centre, NottsVGE is a fairly intimate event but one which is bristling with the cream of the UK gaming scene. Amongst the confirmed attendees are WAVE Game Studios, SEGA Powered, gamesreup_, It's Much More, SEGA Mags, Rare, and The Retro Hour and many others too; alongside a whole host of special guests and traders selling gaming gear. There's also a bar. Important detail, that.
Tried to make this lot look as sexy as possible.
Alas, this thing was a lost cause.
As mentioned, several of the Junkyard's podcast and editorial crew will be there manning our dedicated stand (where you can play some Dreamcast games or just generally loiter and chat if you so wish), and we've teamed up with those lovely folks at Bitmap Bureau to run a pretty cool little competition.
The rules are simple: play a game of the excellent Xeno Crisis and record your highest possible score using the Dreamcast Twin Stick controller. If you place among the top scorers on the day, you'll bag an awesome prize! We have Xeno Crisis T-shirts and 6 copies of the game to give away on several formats (Mega Drive, Dreamcast and Neo-Geo CD), as well as a copy of the Xeno Crisis OST and a wad of Xeno Crisis promotional postcards.
If you're not familiar with Xeno Crisis, we reviewed it here at the Junkyard upon release for the Dreamcast in 2020, and Mike Phelan was pretty impressed with what the sci-fi themed top-down shooter had to offer:
"I'll be playing Xeno Crisis for some time, and I look forward to each and every re-entry into that damned colony and it's ugly denizens...Because it's fun. Bloody, silly, exciting fun. And that, really, is the greatest compliment I can pay any game. Indie Dreamcast developers - a new challenger has arrived in the arena, and it's here to show you how it's done."
Big thanks to Mike Tucker at Bitmap Bureau for supplying these prizes. If you haven't got your tickets already, head over to the NottsVGE website or give the event a follow on Twitter.
We're only in attendance on Saturday 17th December so if you want to be in with a chance of either meeting Kev and seeing/touching/sniffing his glorious bootleg T-shirt, or bagging one of our Xeno Crisis prizes, then you know what to do. We look forward to seeing you there!
Did you know that every Dreamcast's CPU contains about 50 milligrams of gold? I didn't, but apparently that's true...not that I can find a source to back it up. Turns out there is also a community of people in this big old world who extract gold from CPUs for the purpose of making money. Although, according to this website: "there is very little profit from extracting the gold content found in most computer chips and electronic components yourself unless you have significant quantities of recyclable material to be processed." So fret not my fellow Dreamcast fans, if you are lucky enough to own multiple Dreamcasts, you could extract enough gold from them to afford some fries at McDonalds or something.
If you fancy some of that Dreamcast gold goodness for yourself, and can't be bothered retrieving it from your own console, 'Retroldtech' has just the product for you: an engraved gold bar of Dreamcast gold - or a 'lingot' - as it is listed, for the bargain price of €75.00 (£65.68/$77.19)! It is apparently the "finest gold on earth," has a purity of "9.9.99" and comes in at a mighty 128 karats.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, this product is completely in jest. If you take a quick glance at the product's page, you will soon realise this is not actual gold, and is merely a joke/novelty product.
In recent years, there has been a surge of independently-crafted joke toys. Most likely inspired by parody artists such as Obvious Plant, creators across the internet have took to making and selling their own ironic homemade toys, all presented rather smartly with cardboard backings, just how the old Star Wars 3.75 inch figures were presented.
Probably the best way to demonstrate the lengths of absurdity this trend has reached to, check out Ben Gore's 'Saturn's Son' figure. Inspired by Francis Goya's infamous painting of Saturn Devouring His Son, you receive his son, devoured, presented as if you could've walked into Toys 'R' Us back in the day and found it amongst the action figures. Products like this aren't really meant to be taken out of their packaging and are intended as a novelty, the kind of thing you'd display in your house to make your friends chuckle when they visit, provided they have a very specific sense of humour.
Retroldtech has some intriguing products on their website, including cool miniature replicas of Sega consoles and some awesome (but very pricey) Nintendo 64 fairy lights. It appears they have now moved into gag/novelty gifts with their recent Dreamcast 'gold lingot,' and it appears there potentially may be more to come, as the product is marked as '#001' of 'RetroLOLTech'.
Now you know this isn't real gold, perhaps the price seems a bit on the steep side, but I guess you just have to remember that this won't be a mass produced product, and is most likely made in someone's home just for the fun of it. Still, 75 euros though…
Will you be purchasing a novelty Dreamcast lingot? Let us know in the comments below!
The current trend of Dreamcast games being brought back online shows no sign of slowing down (in some cases, totally new online games are being developed for the console); and if you have a DreamPi and a selection of online-enabled titles then you have no reason not to get fully involved. Just go to Dreamcast Live and follow the instructions and you'll be fragging, slam dunking, and racing with single analogue-sticked cramp in no time flat.
But what of the previous, more contemporary methods of connecting a Dreamcast to the world wide web? Those 33k and 56k modems may be a little dormant these days, but the Dreamcast Broadband Adapter is still quite operational with a modicum of effort, and YouTuber Modern Vintage Gamer (MVG) has done a deep dive into BBA game compatibility and web browsing functionality in 2022:
I've been a fan of MVG for some years now, his dulcet tones effortlessly deciphering even the most complicated of topics when it comes to many aspects of gaming and game development. In short, the man is a something of a genius (this is not a paid post, I should add).
So yeah, even though MVG in no way needs a boost from this inconsequential little blog to help his astronomical viewing figures, I thought it might be nice to share his video here in case you somehow missed it. Also, if you dive into the comments over on YouTube, you'll spot some familiar names from Dreamcast-Talk and the wider Dreamcast community. Lovely stuff.
It's spooky month, people. While I personally have made little to no effort to acknowledge it whatsoever this year (I literally put a pumpkin emoji in my Twitter name, and that's it); retro game developer Voxel definitely has with a brand new demo just in time for All Hallow's Eve...
Voxel is no stranger when it comes to developing for the Dreamcast, as evidenced by his previous projects, such as proof of concepts RUINS and Unfungused Game.
Voxel's latest project, Dashy no Blast, is a Halloween-themed 3D multi-directional shooter where you take control of a witch flying around on a broomstick shooting an assortment of fiendish ghoulies. 3D graphics in Dreamcast projects are always a welcome sight, and Dashy no Blast is looking really good visually, especially coupled with the spooky aesthetic. Voxel says he's been working on this game's engine for a while, which leverages "the powerful open source KallistiOS and GLdc libraries."
While the game doesn't currently support twin sticks, the left stick is used to move, and holding the right trigger will lock on to an enemy, in a similar vein to Cannon Spike. Basically, Dashy no Blast is like if Cotton met Cannon Spike, and I'm totally here for it.
Getting Jersey Devil vibes from these pumpkin heads... Anyone remember Jersey Devil? No one?
While Dashy no Blast is just a pre-alpha with one level for now, Voxel has asked on Twitter for people to let him know what they think, as he's "seeking as much input as possible before deciding on the future direction of this game." I know for certain I'd definitely love to see more. A game like this could definitely be a perfect candidate for an indie release once it's complete. If you give Dashy no Blast a go and like what you play, please let Voxel know!
To play Dashy no Blast, just download the .cdi from the itch.io page. It is playable on real hardware (VGA only) and emulators. Happy Halloween!
Despite being a Dreamcast super nerd, I must admit I wasn't aware of the Japanese-exclusive "RUN=DIM as Black Soul" until community stalwart Rolly announced that an English fan translation was in the works for it. Today, I am reminded of this game yet again, because late yesterday we learned that that very translation patch had finally been released.
For those unaware, Rolly (along with frequent collaborator RafaMGam) has been involved in many translation projects for some really cool Dreamcast games, such as The Lost Golem, Karous, L.O.L.: Lack of Love, and probably most notably, Blue Submarine No. 6: Time And Tide. Rolly has also been responsible for some translations of DC games into Polish too.
So, back to RUN=DIM as Black Soul. Peculiar name, but it's essentially a turn-based strategy RPG with mechs. It was developed by Yuki Enterprise and published by Idea Factory in 2001. It appears to be part of a wider franchise (Run=DIM) which includes an anime series, as well as titles for the PlayStation 2 and the WonderSwan Color. Those who worked on the translation recommend the game to fans of Front Mission, Rayblade or Super Robot Wars.
Writing about Run=Dim as Black Soul in his A to Z of Dreamcast games guide, fellow Junkyarder Mike explains that the game "has a fairly large amount of Japanese text interspersed with its stat heavy presentation, which is rather daunting, and it's not exactly clear what is going on to anyone who can't understand the language." He finishes his blurb by saying "I just wish I knew what was going on." Well, Mike, today's your lucky day! With this translation patch, Run=Dim is now penetrable for English speakers. I will definitely be giving it a go.
Anyway, enough from me, you can download the translation patch here. The translation is playable on real hardware, ODEs (GDEMU/MODE) and emulation. Thank you to Rolly, RafaMGam and EsperKnight for their hard work and dedication bringing this to us.
I’m partial to a bit of Puyo Puyo. Precise Museum, however, really love Puyo Puyo, as evidenced by the plethora of independent Puyo-related English translations this talented team of megafans have completed over the years. Their translation efforts span multiple different types of Puyo media - games, comics, drama CDs, light novels, and more. The reason we’re talking about them today is because they’ve finally added a Dreamcast release to their catalogue: an English translation of Japan-exclusive Puyo Puyo~n (also known as Puyo Puyo 4).
While the classic gameplay of Puyo Puyo doesn’t require a knowledge of Japanese to be enjoyed, Puyo Puyo~n has a lot of story elements that will be missed out on unless you understand the language. Precise Museum’s translation has finally solved this issue for English speakers, so a big thanks goes out to them for all the work they’ve put into making this project a reality.
Anyway, that’s enough talk from me. Here’s a link to get the translation, which is playable on both real Dreamcast hardware and emulators. Also, the team put together a cool trailer for this project, so check that out below.
