The Tragic Fate of DC-UK Magazine and Its Unreleased Issue 21 — Four Lost Reviews Found!

These days, typing "DC-UK" into your search engine of choice will lead you to the UK web stores for an American comic giant, a classic skate shoe brand, or even a company that makes delightful wooden duck sculptures. But for British Dreamcast fans of a certain age, those four letters still spark memories of one of the best unofficial magazines to ever cover Sega's final console. DC-UK was Future Publishing's cheeky, offbeat stab at covering the Dreamcast, and it struck the perfect balance between solid game coverage and creative features, without ever taking itself too seriously.

In 2026, Future stands as one of the few remaining large-scale UK magazine publishers, having gobbled up many of its competitors over the past decade. But back at the turn of the millennium, many more publishing houses were vying for a slice of the magazine market, and for a time, a magazine dedicated to Sega's exciting new Dreamcast console seemed like a fair punt. We previously had the pleasure of chatting about the creation of DC-UK with its first editor, Caspar Field, on our podcast, but today we're fast-forwarding to the end of its run.

How DC-UK introduced itself in its debut issue.

Echoing the fate of the console it was created to celebrate, DC-UK would end not with a bang, but with a whimper. Just like Dennis Publishing's Official Dreamcast Magazine, DC-UK would be killed off seemingly overnight — no final farewell within its pages, and a promised next issue that would never materialise. 

If you, like me, believe a magazine as great as DC-UK deserved a more dignified send off, then read on, because I've found out why it didn't get one. I even spoke with three former members of the DC-UK editorial team, whose insights help shed light on the circumstances behind the mag's untimely end. And, as you may have noticed from the title of this article, I've also managed to recover and preserve four unreleased reviews that were originally intended to appear in DC-UK's cancelled issue 21... Pretty exciting, right? It only took 25 years for them to see the light of day!

But before we get into all that, let's first see how DC-UK bowed out. The magazine's final issue, issue 20, hit shelves on the 15th of February 2001...

All scans in this article were sourced from Sega Retro.

The front cover of what would turn out to be DC-UK’s final issue would certainly look good, but the game featured so prominently was an unremarkable one: Fighting Vipers 2, the often-forgotten sequel to a Sega Saturn fighting staple. Considering the online multiplayer-RPG phenomenon that was Phantasy Star Online was also getting a review inside, you'd think that might have gotten pride of place over fiery helmet guy (or whatever he's called) from Fighting Vipers, but it was instead demoted to a secondary coverline just below it. With Official Dreamcast Magazine running a big PSO cover that same month (issue 17) and promoting its own review as "the first in the UK", it appeared that DC-UK's response was to counter by securing a UK-first review for Fighting Vipers 2 instead.

The editor for the issue was Lee Hart, as long-time editor Keith Stuart —who'd been in the role since issue seven— had moved on to greener pastures (although he did provide some freelance writing for this issue). And greener pastures they were, as Lee's first port of call as the new editor of DC-UK was to announce that Sega was to become a third-party developer.

Despite the change of editor, and a reduced page count (100 pages, down from around 130 pages at the magazine's peak), issue 20 of DC-UK was still a decent read, although the kind of off-the-wall features and cutaways the mag had become known for were largely absent. Where were Nostradamus' Dreamcast predictions? The hungover fishing trips? Instead, readers got four pages at the front of the issue dedicated to Toy Commander developer No Cliché's then-upcoming Agartha — and that game didn't even release! Surely that space would've been better filled with a spread showcasing photos of the DC-UK team's body parts? (That was actually a genuine reoccurring DC-UK feature. I'm not being weird!)

All jokes aside, the Agartha feature is certainly interesting, and offered a staggering amount of behind-the-scenes content considering the piece's short page count, including screenshots, concept sketches, work-in-progress renders, and a conversation with former head of No Cliché, Frédérick Raynal. Reading it in 2026 feels somewhat surreal, knowing what ultimately would (or wouldn't) become of the game.

Being that the issue released in February of 2001, there were still enough upcoming releases on the horizon to give worried Dreamcast fans reason to keep the faith. Previews this month included Sega heavy-hitters Daytona USA 2001 and Skies of Arcadia, alongside a number of titles that would ultimately end up as Japanese and US imports for us here in old Blighty. The Last Blade 2 and Giga Wing 2 promised niche thrills for arcade connoisseurs, while The Typing of the Dead and Illbleed lay in wait to deliver their own uniquely quirky brands of horror.

Dreamzone Magazine: First 15 Issues now Digitally Preserved

 

Parles-tu français? No, me neither. Languages weren't a strength of mine at school, and despite some derisory attempts to pick up Spanish during adulthood, I remain a stereotypically monolingual Brit. Nevertheless, last year I took up the task of acquiring and scanning a whole heap of Dreamcast magazines from across the globe that had yet to be digitally preserved. A handful of those missing from the internet are in English, but the vast majority are in the Romance languages of my European neighbours, Japanese and even varieties of Chinese. 

Why on earth would I bother doing this? Well, for one, I'm hopeful that the pages of these mags might contain some information that is useful to hobbyists, journos and potentially even the more rigorous varieties of gaming historians.

Fortunately the Junkyard crew's attitudes towards our French neighbours are much more comradely than that shown in this Dreamarena chat snippet...

Secondly, it seemed a shame that masses of material was only available to those who were fortunate enough to hold private collections. And lastly, given that there is no profit to be made from it, it was unlikely that digital preservation of this sort was going to happen unless I (or other volunteers) took it up. Oh, and the biggest reason of all - I'm a big dork and get a kick out of dorky endeavours.

Ok, enough with the prelude and on to the main event. The primary purpose of this post is to announce that the first 15 issues of the French magazine Dreamzone are now available for your viewing pleasure, hosted by the virtual Aladdin's cave that is Sega Retro. That is, over 2,000 pages of retro gaming journalism, brought back to life kicking and screaming from the dark depths of the turn of the Millennium. 

Feel free to browse the scans for yourself, or, for an introduction to the magazine and a run-down of its contents, read-on.

Dreamzone: Stalwarts of the French Scene (1998-2002)

Launched by the prolific FJM Publications in December of 1998, Dreamzone was the first magazine of its ilk to appear in Europe. Understandably enthused by the Japanese launch, their early start meant that the first few issues of the mag were dominated by salivating previews and reviews of exotic Japanese imports, as well as extensive pondering over what the coming European launch may entail. Once the wait was over in late 1999 a substantial proportion of the page budget was duly turned over to a PAL-specific focus, though coverage of the many, many Japanese releases still remained a mainstay until the bitter end.

The FJM Publication team circa 2000, featuring two chaps who took up the Editor-in-Chief role for Dreamzone: Vincent Maulon (issues 7-15) and Cedric Devoyon (issues 16-29).

Dreamzone featured everything you might expect from a magazine of its genre and age: a copious letters section, interviews with game industry heads, reporting from events, boisterous editorials, competitions, game tips, reviews and previews, and of course, crass slobbering over a digital Lara Croft. What was perhaps a little more odd was their persistent coverage of the Neo Geo Pocket - seemingly adopted as an unofficial companion for the Dreamcast, perhaps in spite of the console war rivals over at Nintendo. Looking at it through the lens of 2024, the haphazard reporting on movies and websites that filled the back end of the mag seems rather twee too, but may well have added some value for readers at a time when internet access was limited.

"I'm not BOY". Vive la Neo Geo Pocket!

Despite lacking the GD-ROM giveaway of its official competitor, Dreamzone still packed a lot of bang for it's buck (or Franc to be more precise), coming in at 132 pages per issue on average. And, from what can be established through some rudimentary internet sleuthing, the mag appears to be fondly remembered by many a French millennial - more so than its other national competitor, Game Dream, which was bizarrely ran by the same publishing house. Whether Dreamzone ever actually made it to the shores of distant Francophone territories mentioned in the small print of its cover (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Quebec) is a question for another day...