On the 23rd day of Christmas, Ian Micheal gave to the community... a Christmas collection for the Sega DC.
Ever since his work on the Sega Powered demo disc, homebrew extraordinaire Ian Micheal has really been experimenting with the idea of Dreamcast "collections" using the same UI. Around this time last year, he released the much anticipated (unofficial) Dreamcast version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, which featured a wide range of old-school Turtles games, ROM hacks, cartoon episodes, music, and more, to peruse and enjoy on your Dreamcast.
In October, Ian decided to put a seasonal twist on this concept with a Halloween collection, and now, in a similar vein, Ian has released a Christmas-themed collection for play on the Dreamcast, which he’s been teasing since the beginning of the month. There's so much packed onto it, I'm not even sure where to start...
He stares into your soul as he asks "have you been a good boy this year? HMM?!"
Let's start with the games. This collection is chock full of Christmas-themed games to play, from the Europe/Australia exclusive Mega Drive title Daze Before Christmas, to the Home Alone games, to Christmas ROM hacks of Sonic, Mario, Pokémon and even Wolfenstein 3D! There's nothing quite like a festive spin on old favourites to get you in the mood for the season. Just don't let Santa know we shot him in the Wolfenstein mod…
The longer you look…
But of course, the most important reason why you'd want to download and boot this collection up on your Dreamcast, is to hear Ian sing his own renditions of classic Christmas songs, such as Jingle Bells and Chris Rea's "Driving Home For Christmas", along with many others. This man really is multi-talented. Sadly, he didn't cover blink-182's "Happy Holidays, You Bastard" this time round, but let's hope he does that on a 2024 edition of this collection.
With interactive and musical delights covered, this collection wouldn't be complete without something to watch. How about the 1964 stop-motion classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Well here it is, on your Dreamcast. Sorted, mate.
The ultimate Christmas question: are we listening to George Michael or Ian Micheal?
To play Ian's Christmas collection, head over to the Dreamcast-Talk forums to download the CDI. There's even a video to watch of Ian showcasing it. I definitely think this'll make an excellent addition to the Junkyard's usual Dreamcast-related Christmas traditions, which include Blue Stinger, the Sonic Adventure DLC and that one Toy Commander DreamOn demo where you zoom about as Santa on a jetpack.
Are you going to download this? Let us known in the comments below or via one of our many social media pages! Either way, we here at the Junkyard wish you a very Merry Christmas!
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:
For those few people who frequent this blog who are not also members of the awesome Dreamcast-Talk forums, allow me to say this: you are missing a trick. See, so many interesting and cool Dreamcast-related projects are borne out of those hallowed threads that it's actually pretty hard to keep up; and I start this post in a such a manner that I might give full and unadulterated credit where it is due. To wit: this is a tale which starts life over at the aforementioned forum - Dreamcast coding legend Ian Micheal is porting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection to the Dreamcast. Sort of.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection released on current gen systems in the recent past and is essentially a potted history of the heroes in a half shells' Konami-developed titles from the late 1980s through to the mid 1990s. Perhaps a little disgruntled that this trip through the halcyon days of the Turtles' domination of arcades and home consoles isn't officially Dreamcast-bound, Ian Micheal has turned his considerable talents to cramming a handful of 8 and 16-bit Turtles titles onto a Dreamcast disc, complete with a proper front end selection screen, music, VMU compatibility and even a few original Dreamcast-specific extras for good measure.
It's still a work in progress and while the project will fetaure SNES, NES, Megadrive and Gameboy titles, Ian has expressed that Gameboy Advance games will not be included due to the Dreamcast's ability to emulate said system being lacklustre: "No GBA games - please don't ask again! I don't want crap running. Not even I can make a GBA emulator worth a shit run well enough..." And to be fair - he's not wrong. Quality over quantity and all that.
No word yet on when The Cowabunga Collection will release on Dreamcast, but like the Technodrome, we'll be keeping one massive mechanical eye on the Dreamcast-Talk thread, and so should you. You can also find more videos of different Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games from the collection running on Dreamcast over at Ian Micheal's YouTube Channel.
