Showing posts with label Sega. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sega. Show all posts

An Interview with Kenji Tosaki: How the SEGA Dreamcast and its Beloved Peripherals Came to Be

One day we realised that The Dreamcast Junkyard account on Twitter (or X, as it is now known...) was followed by none other than Kenji Tosaki, the peripheral development manager at SEGA of Japan from the 1990s until 2001, when he retired. He led the design process for classic SEGA Saturn peripherals like the 3D Control Pad and the Virtua Gun, but perhaps most importantly to us here at the Junkyard, he was heavily involved with the design of the Dreamcast console hardware, its controller, the Visual Memory Unit (VMU), and even the Samba de Amigo Maracas Controller, to name a few. To have such an important figure from SEGA's heyday follow usof all peoplewas truly an honour. We knew we had to reach out and try and arrange some sort of opportunity to speak with him.

What followed was a whole lot of machine-translated correspondence, and we must thank Tosaki-san for answering all our questions, as well as his time and patience throughout this process. Another thank you also goes out to Brian Vines and Laurence Goodchild for assisting me with the decision on which questions to ask, as well as Derek Pascarella for some technical explanations.

Of course, we couldn't just let the resulting interview you see below remain machine-translated, so this is where I must extend a huge thanks to translation extraordinaire (and my former Nakoruru fan translation comrade-in-arms) Duralumin, who graciously translated Tosaki-san's original Japanese answers into English.

What was revealed from our conversation with Tosaki-san is a whole lot of great insight into how the Dreamcast hardware and many beloved peripherals came to be. We also thought it was important to use this opportunity to try and dig deeper into some of the more esoteric Dreamcast-related lore, to try and get some light shone on topics that have fuelled debates within SEGA fan communities for decades. Why was a second analog stick a no show on the Dreamcast controller? What was SEGA's view on adopting the almighty DVD format that would've supposedly helped the Dreamcast go toe-to-toe with Sony's PlayStation 2? We also made sure to pick Tosaki-san's brain about some cancelled Dreamcast peripherals, such as the VMU MP3 player, with the hopes of unearthing new information about them.

While our interview does touch on the SEGA Saturn somewhat, it is mainly referenced to assist the explanation of points relating to the Dreamcast's own design. If you'd like to hear Tosaki-san get more in-depth about the Saturn, I highly recommend you go check out his interview with our friends over at SEGA SATURN, SHIRO!

Credit: SEGA Retro

DCJY: Thank you for agreeing to talk with us about your career at SEGA, Tosaki-san. We have read that you were involved with the design of the Dreamcast console. The design was definitely more compact than its predecessor, the Saturn, and very futuristic-looking for the time. When you and your team set out to design the console, what inspired the design?

Kenji Tosaki: The lead director and producer on the design of the Dreamcast was actually Mr. Oikawa [Akitoshi Oikawa], who also handled the design of the SEGA Saturn. For the Dreamcast, the design of the console itself was contracted out, but Mr. Oikawa personally handled the controllers and other peripherals.

Now, when the Saturn was still in development, we ended up drawing up the design ahead of finalizing how much space all the internals would need. Stuff like the main board, the CD drive, power supply unit, all of that. The original design was quite a bit smaller than what the Saturn finally became. As development progressed, we added more components, and the footprint grew larger.

The preliminary designs for the console couldn't accommodate all the changes, so we had to go back to the drawing board, and it ended up quite a bit different from what we had originally envisioned. It had to be made larger, so we also had to redesign some of the finer details of its appearance to match.

With the Saturn, the technical development —the main board, the drive unit, etc.— and the product design had been sort of progressing on different fronts, and that disconnect caused us a lot of issues. Plus, the technical design turned out to be more complex than expected, so the production and assembly was more complicated. We learned from all of that when we were working on the Dreamcast. 

Our top priorities in designing the Dreamcast were to optimize the internal layout and heat dissipation. I think the internal design turned out really nice and clean. Of course, keeping it simple also helped with assembly. We also waited to plan out the console design until the technical design had been locked in to a certain extent, so we didn’t have to go back and rework a lot of things.

Regarding the design itself, we shopped the job around to a wide variety of outside agencies for proposals;  not just Japanese companies, but even American design houses. Mr. Oikawa reviewed a ton of ideas. 

Ultimately, Mr. Oikawa went with a relatively minor Japanese company’s proposal. They did a very good job of taking Mr. Oikawa’s asks into account when building their approach.

On the conceptual approach, I’ll quote Mr. Oikawa himself:

"The Dreamcast design is made up of simple shapes; squares, triangles, and circles. The point of the triangle points toward the player, representing how the games and online content were to be player-focused. From the console, straight to the player. But then the start button on the controller points towards the Dreamcast. That represents how, in response, the players reach out and connect with the console."

Credit: SEGA Retro

When you and your team were designing the Dreamcast's controller, what were the most important features or aspects that you knew it had to include? It is well known that the Dreamcast controller shares some design similarities to the Saturn's 3D Control Pad, which you also worked on. How much did that controller inspire the Dreamcast's controller?

When we were developing the Saturn 3D Controller, that was the first time we had ever tried to design an analog-input controller. We looked at how we could best make an analog controller, and spent a lot of time working on the basic design, control methods, layouts, and all the associated design questions.

We also looked into all kinds of additional features; stuff like integrated displays, paddle wheel controls, mouse input, motion sensing, infrared, rumble, haptics, voice recognition... many different things. Most of these features proved too costly to have natively on the Saturn 3D pad, but we made sure to design the controller to include an expansion port so those features could be added later.

We had actually planned out a motion sensor and vibration pack, and even made a prototype. We made sure that the controller's cord ran out of the back, since anything to do with motion sensors that you would have to tilt or shake around would be harder to use with the cord coming out of the front of the controller. 

For the analog inputs, we felt it was essential to use a sensor that wouldn't experience any change in the analog signal from drift or wear. To accomplish that, we used "Hall" elements. We knew we definitely didn’t want resistive sensors. We didn’t add them for the sake of having a selling point, we just saw it as the obvious choice. It wasn’t until 2020 that we saw other companies start making controllers with those same Hall elements. I guess the market finally caught up to the SEGA 3D Control Pad, and it only took 25 years.

When it came to the Dreamcast controller, we applied a lot of what we had learned from the Saturn 3D pad.

As I mentioned, the idea behind the Dreamcast ecosystem was “play and communication.” The console could go online, but the concept extended beyond just that. There were also four controller ports, so you could have four people at once all playing together. Then, we decided we would try putting an individual display on each controller. We had originally conceived it as something like a personal monitor for each player for sports games, with individual displays. The VMU was our solution.

Connecting the VMUs directly to the console would have meant we would have to add four pretty big ports for four players’ VMUs, which wasn’t a great solution from either a cost or design standpoint. So, we decided to explore plugging the VMUs into the controllers instead. Every VMU would be like a memory pack, but with an LCD screen and control buttons; it could have its own independent apps, and when it was plugged into the controller, the screen would serve as an additional display.

Away from the controller, you could connect VMUs together to swap data with your friends, or play games against each other. That was another facet of the “communication” concept. For us on the peripherals team, we figured it wasn’t likely that every kid would have an internet connection they could use to play online, so we focused on ways we could build “play and communication” through controllers and accessories.

We also planned out a built-in gyro sensor, so you could control games by moving the controller, as well as built-in vibration, and a built-in light gun pointing device. It turned out to be too expensive to implement those features natively, so we decided to build two expansion slots into the controller. That would leave room for us to release expansion units after the fact. We expected one slot would usually be occupied by the VMU, so we needed to have one more for other expansions.

The most important decision made regarding the controller was to have memory units connect to it instead of the console. We designed the VMUs for that purpose.

The controllers themselves were developed to work with an interface device [MapleBus] that could also support VMUs and any expansion packs. MapleBus proved essential, as it had the kind of scalability we needed.

For the expansion slots, we had to think about what sort of functionality we would need in the future. For instance, if we put out a rumble pack, the vibrations from that accessory would travel down to the slot and the connector. That’s not necessarily healthy for the components, and we expected these to be used long-term. So, we had to come up with a design for the connectors that would be durable and reliable.

The analog input was also much more advanced than the 3D Control Pad. We improved the precision, and allowed wider strokes. At the same time, the units could be made smaller, and needed less space to install internally.

I really would have liked to have seen the gyros, vibration, and wireless pointing built-in on the controller, but it just would’ve been too expensive.

The original US patent for the VMU. Credit: SEGA Retro

New Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi Games Announced by Sega!

If you are a Sega enthusiast, I'm sure you are already well aware of the big announcement they made last night at The Game Awards. If you still need filling in, then here's the news: Sega have announced new games based on some long-neglected IPs, and much to our delight here at the Junkyard, two of them are Dreamcast staples: Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi! You can view Sega's teaser trailer below.


While not a whole load is known about these two new games other than the brief flash of footage shown in Sega's teaser trailer, they do look really cool. The Jet Set Radio game shown is actually the one which had images leaked following a July 2022 survey from Sega. The footage shows Beat tricking - and also parkouring - around Tokyo-To. The game looks to still retain the series' distinctive cel-shaded look, but appears to opt for more realism in its graphical style. A brand new take on Jet Set Radio's very own DJ Professor K is shown off too. In an interview with Washington Post, Sega of America CEO Shuji UtsumI confirms that “the original creators” are involved in some regard.
The Crazy Taxi game looks great too. The gameplay looks as energetic and flashy as any modern take on Hitmaker's arcade classic should be. The teaser shows a taxi being chased by the police, drifting around large, open streets. The footage also seems to imply that players may also be able to take control of the police car, which makes me wonder if there will be some kind of multiplayer mode involved where some players ride the taxis while others chase them down as the cops... perhaps even the dreaded "games as a service" model based on Fornite that was mentioned back in 2022? Of course, I will save any judgement until I know more, but let's hope that Sega know who the real audience is for these reboots.
The other games announced include some very awesome-looking 3D Golden Axe and Streets of Rage reboots (makes me wish we'd got that cancelled Street of Rage for Dreamcast!), which look very much like they'd be a lot of fun as co-op experiences. The last game showed off is a new entry in the Shinobi series which utilises an absolutely stunning 2D art style. 

At the end of the teaser trailer it is clarified that all the games announced are still in development, so it's probably going to be a bit of a wait before we finally get to play them, or even find out more information, like which platforms they'll be available on (hopefully not mobile exclusives!). The Sega fan community have also picked up on the fact that after the announced games are listed, it reads "and more", meaning there is a potential for even more games (hopefully all reboots!) to be unveiled from Sega at some point. Maybe a HD rerelease of Skies of Arcadia? Shenmue 4? The much anticipated Floigan Bros. Episode 2? Only time will tell...
For now, though, this announcement has made the Sega fan community very happy indeed. It's good to see Sega have finally pulled their finger out after countless years of shrugging off the passionate cries of fans asking them to revisit their abandoned IPs.
They finally did something!
What do you think of these new reboots? Which ones are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments section below or via one of our various social media pages!

Blue Stinger: On a Hello Market Slay Ride


"And when those blue snowflakes start falling

That's when those blue memories start calling

You'll be doing all right

With your Dreamcast of white

But I'll have a blue, blue, blue, Blue Stinger"

- Elvis Presley, or a Vegas impersonator thereof

Every year, I must indulge in a series of holiday rituals before I can even think about getting into the Christmas spirit. First, I’ll string up multicolor lights around my living room. Then I’ll help bring cheer to the folks of Twin Seeds City with a couple runs through Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams. Inevitably, I’ll watch Clark Griswold be an asswart to his neighbor Julia Louise-Dreyfus in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It’s a process.

With those nostalgic boxes checked, I’ll then turn to more subtle, personal ways of rediscovering the holiday magic. I'll take a simple reprieve from the stressful work season with my puppy. And stuff my gullet with my mom and aunt’s dueling cookie platters. My girlfriend and I also tried hate-watching Lifetime holiday movies until we realized we were just normal-watching them. Shout out to the one about the family's struggling fruitcake company and the one with Reba McEntire, btw. By this point, I’m really starting to feel the Christmas spirit.

Then – when the time is just right – I’ll pop the star atop the proverbial tree: Climax Graphics’ Christmas-adjacent Dreamcast classic, Blue Stinger.

Here comes Santa Dogs, Here comes Santa Dogs...

Whether the Dreamcast fan community regards it as a brilliant cult classic or a survival horror(ible) jankfest, Blue Stinger doesn’t much give a fuck what we think of it. All told, it's an absurd and campy holiday action game that makes my cup runneth over with Yuletide joy.

Shenmusings of Dobuita, Community, and the Friends We Stalked Along the Way

In better times, my neighborhood reminds me of Dobuita, the vibrant business district setting of Sega and AM2’s pedestrian stalking simulator, Shenmue. It bustles with life as people pack the restaurants, bars, shops, parks, arcades, and the streets in between. I can take a quick jaunt down the road and be surrounded by patrons, workers, shop owners, cooks, bartenders, barbers, and even sailors (well, commercial fishermen, actually). These folks are more than cursory non-player characters. They are my neighbors. They are my friends. They are the very fabric of my community.

But for now, they are gone.
These days, walking through my neighborhood feels like I’m in a typical late '90s video game town. Clusters of buildings line the street but the developers were unable to render more than a handful of NPCs to populate it.

Taking a step back: My heart goes out to everyone struggling through this uncertain and challenging time. If there’s a silver lining, it might be that we’re fortunate to have a hobby like video games to help bide our time as our non-virtual world lies in stasis.

It also helps that gaming is a uniquely personal medium. Through our interaction and immersion, games invite us to co-author a broad range of experiences which we can enjoy on a multitude of levels. Games can bring welcome moments of reprieve and distraction. We can find comfort in their escapism and nostalgia. Whether from across the couch or the internet, we can share experiences with old friends and make new friends of strangers. Beyond that, games can challenge us – and not only in terms of precision, reflexes, or strategy. They can push us to expand our understanding, grow our perspectives, and stretch our imaginations through memorable experiences that we carry with us long after we’ve put down the controller.
In its own way, this situation is a unique opportunity to slow down and consider what is most important to us, whether that's friends, family, community, altruism…and video games, of course. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on my time with gaming, what I appreciate most about the hobby, and what I really want out of it going forward. I’ve also thought about the games that significantly shaped how I engage with the medium. In that sense, I can’t help but keep coming back to the Dreamcast’s library.

Nostalgic attachment aside, Sega’s swansong console simultaneously defined and challenged my perceptions of video games. Although the Dreamcast initially drew me in on its promise of more-than-faithful arcade conversions and the triumphant return of a blue childhood icon, it ultimately forged its legacy by striving to redefine gaming’s future more than rehash its past. It showed me how games can be more unique, interesting, and meaningful experiences well beyond their fun factor and replay value. Through its culture of unbounded creativity, the Dreamcast was refreshingly unorthodox and innovative in ways the industry rarely allows.

In some ways, the Dreamcast was as much an art collective as it was a consumer product. Nowhere was this clearer than in the unchecked (and frankly, fiscally reckless) authority Sega gave its development studios and publishing partners to create whatever the hell they wanted for its wacky white box. In that spirit, this essay could've been about any one of the Dreamcast’s unabashedly inventive works: Rez, or Jet Set Radio, or L.O.L.: Lack of Love, or the VMU, or Illbleed, or Maken X, or Chu Chu Rocket, or D2, or Roommania #203, or Seaman, or Samba de Amigo’s maracas, or…you get the idea.

But this is about Shenmue, because of course it is.

Sakura Wars Returns with Flying Colours (PS4 Review)

The Sakura Wars (aka Sakura Taisen) series is possibly Sega's worst-kept secret, at least for us in the West. Most Dreamcast fans have probably encountered it at some point, but without the ability to understand the Japanese language, most have not proceeded further. This Japanese steampunk-themed tactical RPG series was a massive hit in its country of origin, spawning sequels and spin-offs, as well as crossing into other forms of media. As I'm writing this, the Sakura Wars multi-media franchise has surpassed over 4 million units shipped in Japan.

Despite the series' massive success, Sakura Wars was probably deemed too culturally-different for Western gamers, probably due to its heavy use of unfamilar (at least, back in the late '90s and early 00's), visual novel/dating simulation-style gameplay. The only Sakura Wars game from the original batch to be localised into English was the fifth game in the franchise, Sakura Wars V: So Long, My Love (released on the Wii and PS2). Most would probably agree that it wasn't the best entry the series had to offer, but hey, at least it was something. The series would then remain untouched for many years.
This was no small franchise. A big thanks to our very own Mike for the pics.
But Sakura Wars has stepped back onto the stage and into the limelight once again. Sega have blessed us with a worldwide (albeit, staggered) release of a flashy modern-gen reboot of Sakura Wars, exclusively for PlayStation 4. Developed by Sega's CS2 R&D department, Sakura Wars saw involvement from new and returning staff; including veteran Sega producer Tetsu Katano, director Tetsuya Otsubo and music composer Kohei Tanaka. Tite Kubo, the creator of manga ultra-hit Bleach was responsible for the designs of the main cast of characters. Guest artists BUNBUN (Sword Art Online), Ken Sugimori (Pokémon) and Shigenori Soejima (Persona) contributed their talents towards the designs of various supporting characters. It's clear from such star studded pedigree that Sega really pulled out all the stops for this one, and as an owner of a pre-order copy that turned up three days early, I'm happy to confirm that it resulted in a big success. If you're a fan of Sakura Wars, you'll be happy to know Sega have done the franchise the justice it deserves. If you're new to Sakura Wars, this is the perfect entry point.

Dreamcast Fishing Games: The Ultimate Guide

According to the old proverb, there are two types of fisherman: those who fish for sport and those who fish for fish. I'd like to add a third type to this list. The third type is the fisherman who stands in front of his (or her) TV, with a Dreamcast fishing rod grasped firmly in hand, waving limbs hither and thither in the hope they'll snare an elusive digital trout or silicon stickleback. If you fall in to the latter category, then welcome my friend. Welcome to the Junkyard's ultimate guide to fishing on the Dreamcast. I say 'ultimate,' but I actually mean 'blagger's,' so take everything else herein with a pinch of salt...and vinegar. Tartar sauce is optional.
The humble Dreamcast fishing rod is a peripheral we've overlooked for far too long here at the universe's number one repository for useless information regarding late 1990s Sega hardware™, and that's going to change over the course of the following article. From the actual hardware itself, to the games you can expect to play with the stunted controller, don your waders, fill your flask with Bovril and prepare to drink in a tidal wave of Dreamcast-related, briny and fishy goodness. Imagine eating a jar of whelks through a Dreamcast shell and you'll be on your way, oh salty and weary ocean/canal-side warrior. Let us begin by banishing the angry face of Poseidon from our collective portholes with nothing but harsh language, and examine our weapons of choice...

Expanding the Dreamcast Collection: Part 2 - The Hikaru Seven

In part 2 of my Expanding the Dreamcast Collection series, we’ll be covering one of the other systems in the Dreamcast family, the Sega Hikaru. Much of the information from part 1 (such as how to play Naomi games) applies here, so if you haven’t already, I suggest you go and read part 1 now.

Back now? OK, great  - let’s get started.
Part 2: The Hikaru Seven
The Sega Hikaru was released into the arcades in the year 1999 becoming the third system in the Dreamcast family (the first and second being the Naomi and Dreamcast respectively). Development of the Hikaru was born out of the necessity to convincingly recreate fire, water and the subsequent lighting and particle effects required for such a task in the game 'Shouboushi Brave Firefighters.' Rendering such effects in a semi realistic manner was cutting edge at the time and beyond the capabilities of the original Naomi hardware, so a beefed up version of the system was hastily developed at the request of the game's development team.

The specs of the Hikaru differ from the Naomi in that it utilises a custom Sega GPU and doubles-up on many components; 2 x Hitachi SH-4 CPUs and double the amount of RAM and VRAM. Furthermore, Hikari units are standalone systems not designed for games to be easily interchangeable like the carts seen on the Naomi. Each unit comes with a ROM board containing a specific game fixed in-place inside a heavy duty metal case, much like the House of the Dead 2 board and the predecessors to the Naomi, the Sega Model 2 and 3.
Left: Model 2. Right: Hikaru
The word 'Hikaru (光/ひかる)' means 'to shine' in Japanese, and comes from the system’s ability to generate lighting effects far superior to other gaming hardware at the time. Hikaru was in fact the first piece of arcade hardware cable of rendering scenes with phong shading and Brave Fire Fighters was the first EVER game to use the shading technique. On a side note, the first game for home consoles to use this kind of shading (albeit on far more limited scale) was Space Channel 5, giving a shimmer to Ulala's dress. So there you go, another example of the Dreamcast family leading the pack in terms of advancements in the games industry.

Sega 1999 Annual Report Surfaces On eBay

Here at the 'Yard we have a dedicated AI constantly scouring eBay for Dreamcast-related items of interest. This AI is housed in the bowels of the Junkyard's IT department, an installation so large and foreboding that it had to be constructed inside a hollowed asteroid because the local council wouldn't grant permission for such an impressive feat of architectural and technological brilliance.

Sadly, this asteroid is now hurtling away from the Earth at such a rate that the ethernet cable connecting it to my laptop is getting worryingly taught. No matter though, as it has come up with the goods once again - this time discovering an eBay UK auction for a rather interesting article of Dreamcast paraphernalia. I say 'Dreamcast,' but it's actually more 'Sega' - a copy of the Annual Report from 1999. The images shown in the listing hint at revealing financial figures and the introduction has an upbeat and forward thinking tone.

Throwing Sticks In Rivers

Why did the Sega Dreamcast fail? It's an interesting and popular question that, in light of Sega's current existence as a sort of undead shadow of its former glory, is never too far removed from the gaming community's consciousness.

Indeed, I think you can argue that the Dreamcast's failure and Sega's demise haunts the industry today. That idea that a company so fundamental to the business and culture of an industry can, with one infamous phone call, suddenly cease to be, end in such a messy and brutal way, hovers now like a grim spectre over all of gaming.

More DC fan service from Sega themselves!

Sega hasn't forgotten about the Dreamcast, as seen when it made a brief appearance in two cut scenes of their recent game Sonic Unleashed (the best Sonic game on consoles since the last DC one), and it also appeared in a couple shot of that short film 'Night of the Werehog', sitting pretty on a table. Well in a recent Japanese Sonic Unleashed blog post it was revealed that for that film they started animating a scene in which Sonic and new character Chip were actually playing the Dreamcast, though sadly the scene had to be cut before it was finished. But we do have this shot above of what it would have looked like (sans all the fancy pants rendering, of course). How cool would that of been? Read more about the making of Night of the Werehog here.

Sega Game Archive Room

http://blogs.sega.com/usa/2008/08/07/the-sega-game-archive/

That's pretty impressive.

It's sad that nobody remembers why such a room was created but it's nice that they are going to let people play the games. Hopefully this will lead people to create some cool games based on past greats. I mean they are making Mega Man 9 in retro format. Why not make some old retro Sega games?

I hope someone is smart enough to look through all those Dreamcast CD-Rs for unreleased games. With all those CD spindles there you KNOW there are some playable releases for titles we never saw.

I would have such a good time in that room. (Then I would try to sneak out with twin sticks under my jacket when I left)

Pulled from Kotaku.

Top Dreamcast Moments of 2007

Well it's 2008 and I still don't own a current-gen console. Go figure.

But that's all right because 2007 was a year stuffed with awesome Dreamcast occurrences!

Join me, will you, as I blog about some of my personal favorites...

New Dreamcast games!


Karous, Trigger Heart Exelica and Last Hope. Remember these? What a great year for classic shumps!

Proving once again that the Dreamcast IS the undead console, new games were announced for 2008 as well. This was AFTER the GD-Rom was discontinued!

Redspotgames doesn't want to leave the Dreamcast.

Interview.

Website.

They are coming out with Dalforce and Wind And Water Puzzle Battle this year!

And lets not forget about Dynamite Dreams!


4 players with VMU mode!

http://alicedreams.com/NewsANG.htm

And of course we cannot forget the many homebrew releases and ports from the Dreamcast Evolution site!

http://www.dcevolution.net/

My Favorite?

http://www.dcevolution.net/game_bass.php

Beneath a Steel Sky! If you have a Dreamcast mouse and keyboard you will be all set!

Nick Perry gets a new copy of Resident Evil 2 for the Dreamcast



Just a random youtube video. But I liked it and the Resident Evil 2 Dreamcast version is the best one out there!

The Dreamcast 2 rumour.

Is it possible to crush the Dreams of Sega fans anymore? Yes, yes it is.


Totally official Sega Dreamcast 2 plans. PROOF AT LAST!

http://www.trademork.com/dreamcast/

This trademark renewal led to speculation and many many tears...

Getting a copy of Powerstone 2!


Ok, this was just a personal thing. I have wanted a copy of this game for a long time. I was so lucky to get this game and many other Dreamcast gems in 2007. I made the effort to rearrange my collection this year as well so I got to get some new pics up.

And my personal favorite for 2007?

The Dreamcast guitar.



I don't know why this masterpiece (originally blogged here by Gagaman(n)) caught my attention but it did. Perhaps it's just a nice symbol of how cool the Dreamcast and the Dreamcast community is.

Thank you Flooky from Destructoid.

Here is hoping for an awesome 2008.

Some cool Dreamcast review videos from The Classic Game Room

You know what? Looking back the '90s were pretty damn cool. There was actually good music on the radio all the time. We had kick ass Sega consoles to play video games on. My taste in clothing and personal hygiene were seen as "cool" and "Grunge" rather than "being a scruffy looking SOB". For a very brief time the Internet was cool as well. This was before vast amounts of idiots knew how to invade EVERY SINGLE decent chat room and message board. And of course the late '90s were the time of the Dreamcast (back before it became undead). This was also the time of the Classic Game Room. The first retro video game review Internet show.

Before the dot-com bubble burst this show reviewed the latest and greatest video games. You can learn more about the show at their website.

Anyways, they reviewed video games in a minimalist style that was sometimes insane, but always fun to watch. Here are a selection of some of their reviews of Dreamcast titles. You can learn something about the games, but please take these with a grain of salt. They were meant to be for entertainment. For Gods sakes they gave "Gundam" a higher rating than "Virtual On"!!! But still, enjoy...















...Did I also post these because I am too busy to make my own review video? Yes.

Dreamcast Hangover.

I am feeling a bit blue this morning.

You see I was celebrating the Dreamcast's birthday last night with a few rounds on the off-white box.


Yep. In North America 9-9-99 only meant one thing...the Dreamcast (and stocking up on canned goods and bottled water for no good reason *Y2K*). And now so many years later the Dreamcast is still a wonderful gaming device enjoyed by many.

Yet this auspicious occasion was marred by this article that reminds us of of the sad truth that soon Sega will no longer support it's greatest creation. You should still read that Kotaku article though, the comments people listed below it are a testament to how great the Dreamcast truly is.

So go to Sega's website while you can if you need to grab a manual for the Dreamcast or a Sega Dreamcast game (Scroll down to the bottom of the manual's page). Or consider sending in your Dreamcast in to Sega to be fixed if it's a limited edition one.

I currently have 4 Dreamcast's in the house. One mint condition one hooked up to my VGA adaptor at my computer desk. My Sega Sports limited edition is in secure storage in my closet. Down cellar I have Dreamcast that has been professional repaired and a beater Dreamcast that I use the most. The only thing that has ever gone wrong with any of them was the control board blowing up the F1 fuse in my beater model. But a quick fix and that Dreamcast is still going strong. If you make sure that they are on a cool hard none-carpeted surface Dreamcast consoles can keep working for a long time... But it would be nice if I could send in my Dreamcasts to Sega to get professionally repaired after this month is over. Too bad.

Still it's not all bad news. While I was at a game store recently a young gamer who looked about 14 years old was buying Dreamcast games. I heard him tell the store clerk that he had only recently got a Dreamcast and that it was his favorite console. It's nice to know that the system keeps getting new fans even as Sega keeps trying to pull the plug on it.

But Sega can't end the Dreamcast. It has a life of it's own and it will never die.



All hail the undead console. All hail the Dreamcast.

Awesome art and video - Shenmue - I'm still waiting


What a cool mural! And the music was from the "Beats of Rage" Dreamcast homebrew game.



Dreamcast fans are the coolest.

Long live the undead console.

The Dreamcast Will Rise!


I started this off as a reply to someone on the Planet Dreamcast Forum, but then decided it would be a good topic for debate as a post in its own right...

There are a million links to click on, but put together I think they suggest that the Dreamcast as a console is far from dead!What I didn't mention in the original post, was the love for the DC on a large amount of websites like this one, the homebrew, emu and mod scene and I don't think I emphasized how huge the retro gaming scene both in terms of popularity and as a profitable industry in its own right! At a time when next gen consoles are battling out in the market place, its significant that a selling point for the Wii is the opportunity to play twenty year old games on the Virtual Console.Have a look at this and please let me know what you think.. my guess is that opinion will pretty much be evenly divided, especially since the demise of the GD Rom and the announcement that Sega will be withdrawing technical support for the Dreamcast on September 27th of this year, still...


Here goes my post...I found this article at the excellent http://www.seganerds.com/

"Reports from RetroBlast! indicate that French based website INpactVirtuel have the latest scoop on what could possibly be the next Sega console!Dubbed the ‘Sega Hedgehog’ this console will be a portable games device built on the same technology that the ill-fated Gizmondo platform ran on. Despite the flop that the Gizmondo was- the technology it held was actually more advanced and more powerful than the PSP- just very few games managed to show this and the Gizmondo company fell through soon after they launched the device in the US. The Gizmondo's main feature was that of the Satellite Navigation built in, which was not only used for in car SatNav, but was set to be used in many games too. It’s just a pity that the device was never marketed properly, nor had the support from the gaming community. On a side note- the Gizmondo's SatNav is actually very good- I use it in my car still today.Whether the ‘Hedgehog’ will have the same SatNav technology the Gizmondo had we do not know. Reports Rumours indicate that the Hedgehog will possibly have ‘retrocompatibility’ with old Sega consoles, namely the Mastersystem, Saturn and Dreamcast. Though how that is done, it is not yet known. From the rough image we have seen the device is set to have a USB port for possibly connection to printers, scanners, PC and possibly for wireless Internet access.Of course this is all heresay right now, and to be honest I don’t believe it to be true. Especially as it is said to be available at the end of 2007. But it’s always nice to dream isn’t it? Imagine a handheld Dreamcast or Saturn?"

Wouldn't you like one of


Then there's the love for Dreamcast shown here: IGN Dreamcast...

and here:Play Asia
and here:Game Set Watch
and here:Amazon
and here:Gamestation
and here:Online Consoles
and here: The BBC


Plus there is the case in point of this little reincarnation of the defunct mastersystem/gamegear: Pocket Gaming


Then there's this:Kotaku


And this:Sega Nerds

If there is one fact of which we can be certain its that Sega as a company NEVER miss an opportunity to whore out (or 'recycle for cash' to put it more delicately...) its back catalogue! So who knows? The Dreamcast, like the Game Gear before it, could one day rise from the grave...My opinion? Well lets just say I'm living in hope!!!