The Dreamcast Junkyard: Father K

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20 Years of The Dreamcast Junkyard: A DreamPod Special

Incredible artwork by Animated AF!

Continuing The Dreamcast Junkyard's 20th Anniversary celebrations, we've got a very special episode of the DreamPod for you! I thought it'd be a great idea to reunite some of the people who helped spark and shape the site's journey — founder Tom Charnock (of course), two of our earliest writers Aaron (aka Animated AF!) and Simon (aka Father K), and long-time contributor Mike Phelan — for a nostalgic saunter down memory lane.

I'm a bit of a sucker for hearing the origin stories of things I love (I blame interviewer Nardwuar for making me catch that bug), and I'm also a huge nerd for this website I contribute to, so when hosting this I wanted to dive into how it all began — while also dedicating time to sharing our fondest memories and reflecting on what makes the site so special to readers around the world. Enjoy!

You can listen to this episode of the DreamPod and all of our previous episodes on Buzzsprout, along with all great podcatchers.

Mean Green Machine

By Tom Charnock

This past weekend I managed to catch up with an old friend and former writer here at the 'Yard - the artist formerly known as Father Krishna. FK, as we would occasionally refer to him, was part of the team from around 2007 - 2010 but due to personal reasons decided to take a hiatus from writing about Sega's lovely box of tricks. FK will be making a long overdue return to the Junkyard in the near future, but that's not the reason for this post. When I arranged to meet him, FK said he had a gift for me and I wasn't really sure what to expect. Imagine my shock and delight when he presented me with this bad boy:

Yep, it's a PAL Dreamcast in an aftermarket translucent green shell, complete with matching green VMU and two-tone green and clear controller. Naturally, I was a little taken aback by this act of generosity - all the more so since I've been looking for a translucent Dreamcast shell for quite a considerable amount of time but have always been put off by the relatively high price of them (and astronomical shipping costs from overseas in most cases).

Out with the old, in with the new...

By fatherkrishna

All this crap has to go somewhere...

Hello my dear friends, Father K here! (Yes, you remember, the least productive member of the DCJY team...) I haven't posted anything for ages for a number of reasons, but then I've also actually neglected my Dreamcast for over a year, falling into the '360 trap' and have remained bedazzled by the shininess of the current gen... Until now...

Recently, I got my living room floors laminated. This means the filth ridden, piss stained carpets of yore are now vanquished, but also that I had to totally reconsider which consoles I would re-install (and, of course, where I would put them...)

The "old faithful..." until the little bugger started playing up on me...

The "old favourite", green Dreamcast was re-installed, and I decided (on the exciting basis of the last post) that Shenmue should be the first game I played on it. (Shenmue 2 was the second ever game I played on my 360...)

But fuck-a-doo-dah! The little green snot started turning itself off and on, repeatedly as soon as I put it on. I couldn't get past the opening Lan-Di killing Ryo's father! I was about to have a screaming bitch fit, when I realised I've got bloody dozens (well, three) of those little Dreamcasts hermetically sealed in my loft, in case of just such emergencies.

So off I skipped and fetched down a 'brand new' one. You'll see the results of my unpacking below... It was quite marvellous, the feeling of opening a new console and it being a Dreamcast. I also opened a brand new see through controller, and a brand new see through blue VMU. Tomorrow, I'll play Shenmue on it, and party like it's 1999. Happy days, my brothers, happy days!!!!!