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Credit to Anthony DeCenzo on Untappd |
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Credit to Eric Latulippe on Untappd |
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The Creamcast's full label/wrap. Again, credit to Untappd. |
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Credit to Anthony DeCenzo on Untappd |
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Credit to Eric Latulippe on Untappd |
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The Creamcast's full label/wrap. Again, credit to Untappd. |
They say that Christmas comes earlier each year. Well, Hallmark (America) seem to be determined to move it to as early as April, because they just announced their upcoming 2023 Keepsake tree ornaments range today, and... what’s that?! A Dreamcast ornament?!
Previously, Hallmark have released high-quality ornaments of the Sega Genesis (model 1) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, both with cool sound functions that play the theme songs of Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario World respectively. You can see the Genesis one demonstrated by our pal Derek Pascarella below:
It’s going to be a very @SEGA Christmas this year! Hats off to @Hallmark for putting out this awesome Genesis model 1 ornament this year 🎄 pic.twitter.com/cTrpbE2IEJ
— Derek Pascarella (ateam) (@DerekPascarella) October 14, 2022
We never thought we’d see it, but the next Sega console to receive the Hallmark treatment is the Dreamcast! I guess they believe the nostalgia market is there for Sega's ill-fated swan song. I can't help but notice that they skipped right past the Saturn, though, but maybe we’ll get one next year. Your day will come, comrades.
Keeping in with the same high-level of quality Hallmark demonstrated with their previous game console ornaments, this Dreamcast version is looking fantastic. Measuring 4.71" in height, it certainly looks the part. Pressing the power button not only lights up the power light, but the VMU screen too, revealing a sprite of Sonic previously seen in the VMU game Chao Adventure. The music that plays is none other than the theme from Sonic Adventure's iconic Emerald Coast level. You can see this demonstrated in the video below.
On sale in October! https://t.co/ReIYfERCPZ pic.twitter.com/AvpbHh6YOv
— The Dreamcast Junkyard (@TheDCJunkyard) April 15, 2023
There's one problem, though, and perhaps we should have sensed it the moment we saw that orange swirl. Hallmark America doesn't ship outside of the States, and this ornament isn't available to purchase from Hallmark's UK equivalent store. So non-American folk may have a considerable amount of trouble getting hold of one outside of the UK... I guess we'll have to see when October 14th rolls around and the ornament finally goes on sale. User perkin_warbeck in our Discord community did point out that the Sega Genesis ornament was previously sold on Amazon US, who allow overseas shipping, so we’ll have to see if the Dreamcast ornament gets sold on there too. In the meantime, you can go to its store page on Hallmark's website and stare at it longingly.
Would you hang this ornament on your Christmas tree? Maybe hang it up in your game room somewhere? Are you going to try and get hold of one? Let us know in the comments below, or on one of our many social media channels!
Back in 2015 we looked fleetingly at the Gauntlet Legends pewter miniature giveaway. If you're not familiar and can't be bothered clicking this link to refresh your memory, allow me to offer a quick recap on the situation. Gauntlet Legends is a 3D polygonal sequel to the original 2D Gauntlet and Gauntlet II titles released by Atari in the mid 1980s. Gauntlet Legends was subsequently released into arcades in 1998 and then ported to a range of home systems in 1999 and 2000 - one of which was the Sega Dreamcast.
The game received a fairly positive reception on release for the Nintendo 64, PlayStation and finally Dreamcast, offering a solid - if somewhat repetitive - romp through various fantasy stages, with the player (accompanied by up to 3 friends on N64 and Dreamcast) being required to knock the ever-loving crap out of hordes of mindless enemies as they progressed through the adventure. The Dreamcast version of Gauntlet Legends was the final home port to be released and featured several aspects of Gauntlet Dark Legacy, the follow up title released in arcades in 1999.
This post really isn't about the actual game Gauntlet Legends though. It's about something a little bit more interesting and esoteric - the fabled Gauntlet Legends pewter miniatures that were given away for free to anybody who purchased the NTSC-U version of the game for either Dreamcast or PlayStation.
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Gauntlet Legends NTSC-U box art showing the Gauntlet Giveaway! (source) |
As detailed in that 2015 post, the covers of the NTSC-U edition of Gauntlet Legends offered the opportunity to claim a free set of these pewter figures based on characters from the game, and all that was required in order to own them was to send in a supplied mailing slip and proof of purchase to publisher Midway Home Entertainment.
This 'Gauntlet Giveaway!' was advertised both on the front of the manual (which doubled up as the front cover in most NTSC-U and NTSC-J Dreamcast games), and on the rear cover; while the mail order slip could be found inside the manual. As the Dreamcast port of Gauntlet Legends was launched in early June 2000, and the giveaway only ran until the end of December 2000, gamers only had 7 months to stake a claim to their birthrights (well, their little metal models).
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The Gauntlet Giveaway mail order slip |
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Close-up of the offer advert - details inside! |
Until getting my hands on an American copy of Gauntlet Legends for Dreamcast, I had never heard of this promotion, but I later discovered that a similar scheme had previously been run in connection with the Nintendo 64 version of the game. The difference being that in the case of the N64, a single miniature came bundled in the box as part of an exclusive Walmart promotion, and they are now some of the rarest Nintendo 64 special editions available.
Back in 2015, I lamented about the mysterious nature of these minature models (well, mysterious from a European perspective), and the seemingly nonexistent nature of any information surrounding them; namely how many variants had been manufactured and how many sets had been claimed. Back then there was precious little info available about the promotion, and even now, if you do a cursory Google search you'll invariably end up looking at the same 2015 blog post hosted here on the Junkyard, the Gauntlet Wiki, or some forum posts from the early 2000s.
What we do know though, is that the Gauntlet Legends pewter miniatures were manufactured by Reaper - one of the biggest names in the miniatures and model manufacturing sector. Why then, do I bring up this relic from the mists of time? Because we only went and got our hands on a set of the fabled Gauntlet Legends miniatures, that's why!
The Legends of Gauntlet in miniature form |
The way these things came into my possession is actually pretty bizarre in its own right, so indulge me while I explain the whole sordid sequence of events before we take a closer look at the miniatures themselves, and also an extra nugget of interesting detail contained therein.
A lot has happened recently. Twitter is considering adding an edit button, NFTs seem to have retreated back into obscurity (phew), Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, and of course, the Dreamcast scene continues to keep our beloved (supposedly dead) console relevant. As the team are busy counting the votes for the The Dreamcast Junkyard Top 200 Dreamcast Games 2022, I thought I'd give y'all a Dreamcast news round up. Hold on to your VMUs, because I'm rounding up a lot of things today.
You should all know WAVE Game Studios by now, but if you don't, check out our interview with them to get the scoop on why they're the one to watch in the Dreamcast indie release scene! Then, if reading all about all their previous endeavours wasn't evidence enough, here's all the stuff they've just done recently:
- The first Dreamcast demo disc in 21 Years!
This one's really damn cool. If you're not in the know, SEGA Powered is a cracking Sega-focused magazine that launched earlier this year off the back of a successful Kickstarter campaign. Helmed by Sega gaming mag veterans, every issue that has been released so far have been widely praised by Sega fans everywhere. We had a look at the first issue on the blog a while back, so check that out if you want to learn more.
So we've got a cool new Sega magazine to sink our teeth into, but you know something about the old gaming magazines that we really wish would come back? Cover discs filled to the brim with exciting demos! Well, seeing as the Dreamcast is getting so many new games released for it these days (making it a modern gen console - will box anyone who disagrees), it's only right that an issue of this modern Sega mag would eventually come bundled with some kind of free demo disc featuring tasters of the latest and greatest Dreamcast indie games! The disc will exclusively feature demos of WAVE titles, and will be released with issue 5 of SEGA Powered, due June 2022. It will be be the first Dreamcast demo disc to be released in 21 years! We recommend following the magazine's Twitter account to learn more details as the release gets closer.
- Shadow Gangs is getting a WAVE release!
After a somewhat rocky Kickstarter campaign (that involved the original campaign being cancelled to make way for another with a more reasonable goal), JKM Corp's Shadow Gangs was eventually fully funded. As the game was known to be pretty much near completion, many scratched their heads and asked why Shadow Gangs couldn't just work out a deal with a distributor like WAVE or JoshProd, and skip the Kickstarter all together, but the developers stuck by their campaign.
Well, looks like WAVE are now going to be distributing the game anyway, as announced in a Twitter post posted by WAVE on the 4th of April. This means WAVE will be manufacturing the Kickstarter copies and any future copies that will be sold through WAVE's web store. They've also confirmed that backers will be getting some "super cool extras" with their games, so that's something to look forward to!
- Postal will have local co-op!
WAVE are still on track to release the officially-sanctioned Dreamcast port of Postal on the 2nd of June, and you can still pre-order a copy on their web store. Dan Redfield, the gent responsible for porting the game, revealed at the end of March that he's successfully implemented a 4-player co-op mode into the game's campaign. It's only right that a port of Postal to a console known for its excellent party games would have such a mode!
Translations
Other than the bustling indie scene, another reason for the second wind the Dreamcast is experiencing (at least for us English speakers) are the many translations of Japanese games that have previously been inaccessible to us due to the language barrier. Here's some more!
- Former Managing Director Yukawa's Treasure Hunt has been translated into English!![]() |
Me after playing Spirit of Speed 1937 for five minutes |
- New gameplay footage of the Nakoruru translation!
Derek Pascarella's project to translate the visual novel Nakoruru: The Gift She Gave Me into English started in August of last year. I am working as an editor on the project and all I'll say is that it has been a blast to work on so far! Anyway, Derek has put together a great preview video showcasing a test-build of the translation, which you can find here. You can find out more about everything Derek does by visiting DreamcastForever.com. Watch this space!
The odd stuff!
This is the part of our news round-up where we take a look at some things that verge on the side of kooky or obscure. These are the Dreamcast equivalent of those lighthearted cutaway reports on the real news that show you a Pug that can do a pop shove-it on a skateboard or something. Anyhow...
- The Mega Duck is now playable on the Dreamcast..?
Mega Duck... that's like Rubberduckzilla from that old Oasis advert, right? Nope. It was actually a Game Boy rip off from Hong Kong. It was also released in South America with the equally ludicrous name "Cougar Boy"... You can't make this shit up.
Anyway, the Mega Duck had a not-so-mega library of games (quantity-wise) and the majority of them were developed by Taiwanese company Sachen. When the Mega Duck could no longer be kept afloat (geddit?), Sachen ported a load of its Mega Duck games onto the Game Boy in the form of unlicensed multicarts, presumably to recoup some of their losses. Well, veteran Dreamcast homebrew coder Ian Michael has stripped each individual game from their respective multicarts and packed them all together as a bootable ISO (you need to use DreamShell to boot it) that uses a Game Boy emulator Gnuboy to emulate them. The package contains a total of 21 playable titles. Sadly, Snake Roy is not one of them... Maybe one day.
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That is game art only a Mother could love... |
Go to this Dreamcast-Talk forum thread for more information and a link to download the Mega Duck ISO. Edit: since I published this article, Derek Pascarella has converted the ISO into a .cdi image, meaning it can now be booted up on ODEs like GDEMU and MODE. The link for this is also in the Dreamcast-Talk forum thread. Thanks Derek!
Now, go fourth and play some Mega Duck on your Dreamcast! Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd say...
- You can now cast dreams from the comfort of your very own Dreamcast bed...
Yeah, some company called "MoonLambo" is selling Dreamcast-themed bedding. The company predominately sells clothing featuring a lot of cyberpunk and vaporwave designs, but it looks like they've also branched out into selling home goods. Their trademark infringement-avoiding "Dreams Last" range includes a console duvet cover, VMU pillow cases, and a controller cushion. It's all a bit pricey, with the duvet cover ranging from £73 all the way up to £113 depending on the size you want. I also have no idea if it would even be good quality, as the site looks worryingly similar to one of those dropshipping clothing stores you'd get advertised to you through Instagram-ads, who steal people's designs and print them on crap shirts that shrink after one wash. But if you're a bachelor with a lot of disposable income who thinks a Dreamcast bed would look cool in your pad, then purchase at your own risk.
That's all for now, folks! Which of these news items excites you the most? It's the Mega Duck on Dreamcast, isn't it? Fair enough. Anyway, let us know your second favourite in the comments below!