Dedication & Aberration

As I may have mentioned in some recent posts, the level of enthusiasm displayed by most of the Dreamcast community never ceases to amaze me. Even now, in 2012, there are multiple hand-helds, console mods and emulators popping up all the time, and the level of commitment to our favourite defunct system should be championed. To illustrate my point, I was recently (well, not that recently actually...I completely forgot to post about this but hopefully this will make amends) contacted by a DCJY reader known only as 'Aaron' who has, rather impressively, designed and built his very own bespoke DC arcade cabinet. Wanna see? Boom:



How awesome is that? According to it's talented creator, the unit is 47" tall and has a 17" LCD monitor strapped in. Aaron - the DCJY salutes the fruits of your labour...which was clearly actual labour, and not just clicking around on eBay after one too many beers as I am want to do on many a cold, lonely winter evening. Sigh.

On the subject of eBay and display cabinets, I have noticed quite a number of them popping up for auction - you know, the ones they used to have in GAME and EB back when the DC was en vogue? Weird coincidence or blood curdling conspiracy? You decide.

I finally saw the Angry Video Game Nerd movie trailer last night. Urgh. To use his own phrase against him: what was he thinking? I'm not gonna lie - it looks terrible. I think James Rolfe's AVGN reviews are fucking legendary and I was intrigued by the notion of a movie about the character...but just viewing the trailer made me slightly sad. What's with the stupid aliens and zombies and cliched army shit? Why couldn't it just have been a Napoleon Dynamite-esque tale of a nerd who loves talking shit about games in his basement? I realise the amount of work that must've gone into it, and that the whole project was funded by donations...but is this really what those fans who pledged money really wanted to see? More importantly, can the AVGN ever recover from this:


Again...you decide.

Dreamcast Versus Xbox 360 Part 3

Hello, and Season's Greetings (vomit). You may remember my previous forays into the world of video creation, Dreamcast Versus Xbox 360 Part 1 & 2 that I uploaded to Youtube a few years back and also published here at the 'Yard. To my utter astonishment, the first one has over 20,000 views at present so there's obviously demand out there. Demand to see videos comparing Dreamcast games to games from the current generation. Granted, the mind boggles...but I've dusted off my shitty old Fujifilm (non-HD) digital camera again, recorded some new footage and slapped together another DCJY-exclusive visual comparison. This time its WRC 2 on the 360 (which is a stonking rally sim, by the way) squaring up against V Rally 2: Expert Edition. Enjoy:



The quality is lamentable, I know. And the editing isn't amazing (what do you expect from a Media graduate?!), but I'm using shitty tools. Give me a 2002 Avid suite and I'll give you Avatar 2. Sort of. Meh.

Before anyone says it, I know that WRC 2 is an awesome visual showcase (although it's no DiRT 3...), and I know that V Rally 2 looks like a tramp's gusset in true comparison...but to be fair, it doesn't look too far removed from most Gamecube and PS2/Xbox rally games. Even if all the Gamecube ones were a stain on Humanity. Damn this digressing! Anyway, it's just a bit of fun, so don't go mental.

There's more:

If I don't get the chance to say (write) it - Happy Christmas to all on the DCJY team, and to all our readers around the world. You guys and girls make it all worth it - 6 years on!

Win a Dreamcast, Courtesy of SEGA

SEGA of America's free stuff Friday is tomorrow, and the Dreamcast is the grand prize! Details are on SEGA's blog, something involving that Twitter thing wins you the goodies. Here's what SEGA is offering up:

Dreamcast Pack
After many requests for a console giveaway, we’re very happy to giveaway a Dreamcast (!) in its original box, nearly unopened, with controller, demos, and VMU (not in video). We also have a copy of Samba De Amigo, including the original Samba novelty maraca! And last, but certainly not least, is a copy of the original Shenmue Limited Edition in it’s original shrinkwrap – perfect for any collector or someone looking to play this classic Sega game.

Note: the maraca is a keychain and is not for gameplay use! That Shenmue LE is pretty cool too, it has the jukebox music CD included. Check out the Dreamcast centric fun in the video below:



If you can figure out that Twitter, enter to win! (Details on the SEGA Blog)

Shoecast

Seasons greetings an' all that shit. Anyway, on to more pressing matters. I'm pretty sure I've read something like this elsewhere (quite probably UK Resistance to be honest), but I have to show you this. Background: I'm a bit of a tight twat and so have been visiting clubs, bars etc in a pair of shitty old Vans trainers (see below) for the last 6 months; but recently one of my friends got married. I entertained the idea of wearing my trainers with a suit, but after testing the notion in a mirror, decided against it. So I jumped in the car (it's a Lamborghini*) and found a shoe shop. I bought the first pair of black shoes I saw:

Snow! On Christmas!

I wore them.

A week later I dropped a contact lens next to them, bent down to find it and cast a glance inside the shoe. This is what I saw:

There! Next to the Game Gear!

A Dreamcast joypad!!! How unbelievaby, utterly randomly glorious is that?!

* - Lie

Primitive Nightmare Inbound!

Word. Sorry for the complete lack of an Aerowings 2 review. The truth is that I still haven't really been able to get enough free time to actually sit down and play it properly. I could cobble together a review from the five minutes I've spent doing the training missions and the other reviews I've read elsewhere on the internet, but that ain't how we roll down at the 'Yard.

It's not all bad news though, oh no. I have recently been contacted by a reader who goes by the name of Fuseki. Why? Because Fuseki is releasing a brand new indie DC game, that's why! Planned for a January 2010 release (as a free, downloadable disk image, no less), Primitive Nightmare is an original-looking shoot 'em up that, to me at least, looks a bit like a retro Atari game. His words:

"The game is called Primitive Nightmare. It's an old-school style shooter

that combines elements of classic 80s arcade shooters with some strategic elements. The game is currently in the late WIP stage (I need to do a little more tweaking, and add instruction screens) but the gameplay itself is 99% finished. I hope to have it out as a freely downloadable disc image in January 2010 (a website should be up by then as well)."

Screens? Why, yes:

It's always good to hear from DCJY readers, and it's especially good when those readers are pumping out new software for our favourite undead console. All Hail...you know the rest.

Lawsuit Imminent Part 4: Ker-azy Copyright Infringement

Went to the gym the other day. Not been for a while as I have recently discovered the liberating past time of long-distance road running. That, and the fact that 'working out' in a stifling mirror-filled room full of narcissistic, impossibly muscled grunting wankers makes me feel physically sick. Getting back to the point though - I went to the gym.

So there I was, sweating away with the rest of the cunts and when I could stand no more of the red-faced screeching buffoon checking out his bicep in the mirror next to me - I decided to leave. Now, you know how in gyms there's always a table near the entrance that is strewn with random pamphlets and leaflets advertising yoga classes, Indian takeaways, ultra-max beefcake shakes and all that sort of shite? Well, there was one in the gym I visited. And d'you know what? Upon that very table I found something Dreamcast related! YES! How fucking random is that?! Check out this flyer created and circulated by Somerset County Council that advises people not to use unliscensed taxis:

Notice anything strange? Apart from the obvious copyright infringement and image theft from the movie Taxi Driver, look a little closer. Look at the TAXI. Look crazily familiar?!

Here's a clue:

It's Axel's motor! And if you look closely at the back of the flyer, you can see that the photoshop wizards down at the town hall haven't even bothered to remove the 1NOM155 licence plate from the front of the cab. Interestingly, the helpful garb states that 'pirate taxis are unlicensed, uninsured and very unsafe,' yet makes no mention whatsoever of the shortcuts they take across rooftops, under the sea and through subway tunnels whilst expecting tips for not killing you in a multi-car pile up.

There are some slightly more sinister things on the flyer too - the 'issuer' on the mock-up taxi liscenses is 'SS,' and the driver I.D. has a little picture of Joseph Goebbels on it.*

If I were Phoenix Wright, I'd be on the blower to Sega HQ asap. Sadly though, I'm not a high-powered cartoon attorney with an improbable quiff. Sigh.

*This is a lie.

Zombies and the Dreamcast. A perfect match.

Zombies have been a big theme in my life lately.

I am going to be participating in a Zombie Walk tonight. (That's where a bunch of people dress up as zombies and walk around town, self explanatory really.) If there is a chance, I am also going to be shooting some footage of the event for my public access cable TV show.

I have also organized a free movie night at the library where we will be showing some great movies including "Nosferatu" and "Night of the Living Dead".

And therein lies the tenuous connection to the Dreamcast...

Go to the DC Evolution site to get your very own copy of "Night of the Living Dead" to play in your Dreamcast!

Yes, the famous 1968 film by George Romero (which was never meant to be released into the public domain so soon) is perhaps the most awesome movie available in the public domain! It has been called the first modern horror film and the first and greatest zombie movie of all time.

So now the Undead Console can play one of the great undead films of all time! All for the cost of a CD-R!

DC Evolution has three other awesome public access horror movies formatted to play on a Dreamcast. So visit their site.

http://www.dcevolution.net/

IMDB Night of the Living Dead.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063350/

Wikipedia about Night of the Living Dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead

All Hail the Undead Console!

Isosceles

Apologies for my recent lack of input here at the Junkyard. I've been having a major malfunction on the broadband front and as such haven't been able to get anywhere near the internet for at least a fortnight. Sure, there are internet cafes dotted about, but I'd rather lick the decomposing innards of a CJD-infested cow cadaver than pay £1.50 for twenty minutes of shit-slow Netscape Navigator. But I digress. Last week I spent a few days in my home town of Manchester and I was both surprised and delighted to discover that a museum in the city centre was holding an interactive exhibition detailing the rise of the videogame.

This exhibition (aka Videogame Nation) was being held in what's known as the Urbis - a glass isosceles triangle of truly grotesque proportions:

Urbis, yesterday. Sans legions of skaters usually found outside.

Anyway, I grabbed a mate and went to check it out. It cost £3 to get in and was overrun by shouting kids, but it was quite a decent little exhibition - indeed I was initially impressed by the first display case I was greeted by because it housed copies of long defunct games mags and consoles of yesteryear. So I wandered around, played on a NES and an Amstrad GX4000, posted a lap record on WipEout and even had a quick bash on Banjo Kazooie...but something was niggling at me. And as I approached the end of the trip down memory lane, it hit me in the face like a massive wet fish swung by an irate cybernetic clown: The was no mention whatsoever of the Dreamcast, or for that matter, the Saturn!

As such, I was forced to draw a Dreamcast logo on a piece of paper and pin it to the comments board on my way out, along with the caption: "Dreamcast - gone but not forgotten!"

The Dreamcast Junkyard: still spreading the good word. I suppose I should've written "All Hail the Undead Console," but you can't have it all, eh?!

Blue/Orange Ring of Life

So, it finally happened to me. That thing that I've heard and read so much about finally came around and bit me on the ass. I'm talking about the dreaded 'red ring of death.' Just like whispering the name of the Scottish play before a theatre performance, muttering those four words prior to switching on your Xbox 360 will only result in a bizarre grinding noise and a crimson halo emanating from your console's faceplate. But this is a Dreamcast site, so why do we care? Well, I just wanted to bring it up because in the four years I've had my (second-, and maybe even third-hand) Dreamcast, it hasn't died. Granted, there was the whole speaker wire/controller board incident but it still battles on nearly 10 years after the last units rolled off the production line.

All hail the Undead Console!

Incidentally, even though they are responsible for one of the greatest crimes to retro-gaming in the modern age, I'd like to give Kudos to the guys at Gamestation who effortlessly swapped my 360 for another one...and also sold me an extended 2 year warranty for twenty fucking quid.

Next up: Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000 and an exclusive review of the McClaren Dreamcast pad. I realise how exciting this news is, but for the love of God CONTAIN YOURSELVES!

Yahoo Games talks about the Dreamcast's "Resurrection".

The undead console has risen! Quite a few online shops have been selling (out of) brand new Dreamcast's and this has led to the video above from Yahoo games. "It's a good thing consoles can't eat brains, because it's certianly the first time we've heard of one coming back from the dead!" Wahahaha!

The American Dreamcaster Champions "The Undead Console!"

Well Yee Haw! Kick it to the kerb homies! Hot diggity dawg and bless my cotton socks!

(Or whatever it is that our colonial cousins from across the pond say when they get excited...)

Yes folks, the Dreamcast Junkyard is set to become an international phenomenon, as the legendary Caleb (he of Dreamcast loving blog extrordinnaire the Hunyak), has decided to add his not inconsiderable muscle to the great Tomleecee's, 128 Bit Sega Mafia!

We've already got one media wizard on the team in the shape of the Gagaman(n), and now we've just secured another! Expect some great Dreamcast film projects coming up in the future, along with some obscure pieces of Dreamcast trivia and memoribilia, and some killer game reviews!

Caleb's work over at the Hunyak and The Saturn Junkyard has already proved to be of great merit, and I for one am excited about how his fresh insight and input, will give us more regular posts and interesting content. Here's to a new chapter in the history of the great Dreamcast Junkyard...