DeeDee Planet to be Playable Online for the First Time (updated - now online!)

DeeDee Planet sample box artwork, sourced from Sega Retro.

Update: Since this article was published, Dee Dee Planet has sucessfully been brought back online thanks to the living legend known as Shuouma! You can find out more at Dreamcast Live. Original article continues below:

Just over a year ago, we brought you news about a fully playable beta version of a previously unavailable Dreamcast game being released to the public, thanks to the investigative work of a Dreamcast community stalwart, PC Wizard. The development of DeeDee Planet, a multiplayer single screen combat game intended to be a successor to ChuChu Rocket!, was fully complete, with the game slated for an official release in 2001. Alas, this never happened. Instead, the game was shelved (allegedly due to some pesky network related bugs) and for 20 years the closest we got to experiencing DeeDee Planet was forlornly gazing over snippets of gameplay and advertisements featuring artwork and screenshots.

Now, it seems that DeeDee Planet is imminently due to be playable online, as it was meant to be, in all its hectic glory. Over the last few weeks, Shuouma (Jonas Karlsson), has worked his magic to create a server and modify the game to ensure it communicates properly with this. PC and Shuouma have been putting this setup to the test and report that the game is running smoothly, with no appearances of those aforementioned network bugs, which may well have been present on the original Sega servers but haven’t dared rear their ugly heads here.

Enjoy lobbing projectiles at your mates? Want to do it from the safety of your own home? DeeDee Planet has you covered. Screenshot of online play during testing courtesy of PC Wizard.

For the enlightened readers with an internet-connected Dreamcast at the ready, here are some of the key details to know:

• The game is not Broadband Adapter compatible, so you will need to connect via a DreamPi, PC-DC server, or real dial-up - respect to anyone still cracking on with the latter!
• You will require a patched version of the game to play it online – something which Shuouma and PC will be releasing into the wild in the near future.
• An updated DreamPi image is not necessary, so you can keep those SD cards slotted safely away for the time-being.
• Online play will require a username and password to be setup, which can be done in-game, as is the practice with ChuChu Rocket!. These details will be tied to your console ID, so try not to forget them!
• The gameplay is almost exactly the same online as it is offline, so if you want to be a champion from day one of the server going live, then get some practice in on the version of the game that is already available.
• Although it is the Japanese edition of the game that is being worked on, most of the online menus are in English and can be easily navigated.
  

As I write this, loose ends are being tied up and final touches are being applied, primarily relating to player stats and rankings. Those wanting to stay tuned on the latest progress can follow the Twitter accounts of Shuouma and PC, and should also keep an eye on the Dreamcast Live website. Of course, we will be sure to announce the release of the patched online version of DeeDee Planet when that happens too.

Where do you recognise those icons from, eh? Answers on the back of a postcard (or in the comments) please. Screenshot of the online lobby for DeeDee Planet, courtesy of PC Wizard.

If you haven’t got online with your Dreamcast yet, then this is probably the best time to do so, what with online play for DeeDee Planet, Driving Strikers, and a whole heap of Capcom games likely to arrive soon. Ok, there aren’t quite the 6 billion players touted by Sega in their marketing campaigns at the turn of the millennium, but there are dozens of us. Dozens! Dreamcast Live, Dreamcast-Talk users, and the Sega Online discord group are all active in organising online sessions. Be sure to say hello and get involved.

New Dreamcast Prototype Found: Panic World

If you've had your eye on the Dreamcast community as of late, you'll probably agree with us in saying that 2021 is definitely the year of Dreamcast prototypes.

The latest unreleased game to enter our collective attentions comes courtesy of Mike Mika, the studio head at the California-based game studio Digital Eclipse. Last night, Mike tweeted a string of tweets that I presume came about as a result of him looking through a treasure trove of Sega stuff. The tweet that peeked everybody's attention, however, was one of a GD-R for a mysterious unreleased game 'Panic World.' "What is Panic World for Dreamcast?," asked Mike (source). Unlike many other legendary unreleased Dreamcast titles, this is one that we've never heard of before. Much speculation occurred as a result. Was it somehow related to Hello Kitty: Garden Panic? Maybe the unreleased Sega puzzler Aqua Panic? Many people hoped it was some kind of sequel to the trippy-as-hell point-and-click title Panic! for Sega CD. Basically, we were all pretty eager for Mike to answer his own question for us.

Luckily, Mike had a System Disc 2, which would allow him to boot the GD-R up on a normal Dreamcast. A few hours later, Panic World was unveiled to the world, for the first time ever. 

Turns out Panic World was a 2D puzzle game (in the vein of something like Tetris Attack) that Digital Eclipse had been developing for Dreamcast that had reached the prototype phase. Mike shared some gameplay footage, then two screenshots of the title screen, as well as what appears to be a character select screen (source). It definitely looks like it could've been quite interesting. The game's aesthetic makes me think less of a Western-developed Dreamcast game, and more of one of the odd but fascinating titles that might have been released exclusively in Japan. Check the gameplay footage and screenshots below:

pic.twitter.com/H2ubgamBkZ

— Mike Mika (@MikeJMika) September 22, 2021

Rather amusingly, Mike's fellow Digital Eclipse colleague Chris Kohler tweeted "lol let's finish it and ship it" (link). While pretty obviously said in jest, we'd still like to see this game released and preserved in some manner, even if it's just a prototype for us to tinker with on a GDEMU to see what could've been. We're sure the community are already reaching out to Mike to see if he'll dump it online for us all to take a look at, so watch this space!

What do you think of this prototype? Does it look like something you might have enjoyed back in the day? Let us know in the comments below, or on our various social media pages!

DeeDee Planet: Beta of Cancelled Dreamcast game Released Online!

Do you like ChuChu Rocket!? Of course you do. Anyone who has ever picked up a Dreamcast controller enjoys Sonic Team's insane grid-based space mouse puzzler. It's a classic, and for some, was an introduction into online console gaming. But not everyone is aware that ChuChu was actually supposed to be the first in a series of Dreamcast network-enabled games. The second game, DeeDee Planet was actually completed by developer Dori Dock and ready to be released, but due to a bug in the online mode, was unfortunately cancelled at the last second. Ever since then, it has remained yet another intriguing mystery in the Dreamcast's (never-ending, it seems) legacy.

PC's photo of the GD-R. Nice Ultimate Collector's Guide in the background!

But thanks to the hard work of one of the Dreamcast scene's biggest stalwarts, and our good buddy, PCWzrd13, the final beta for the game has been found. PC spent a long time trying to find anyone who worked on DeeDee Planet, and after a long search, was able to contact an individual in Japan (who won't be named for legal reasons) involved with the game. This person intended to send PC a GD-R containing the beta a year ago, but those plans were delayed due to the pandemic. But we're now a year on, and PC finally has the disc in his possession. And yes, it's been dumped online for you all to enjoy!

Trailer for unreleased horror game 'If It Happen' found!

'ello! Been a while since I wrote an article here hasn't it? Anywhoo, I have a video here that - as far as I know - has not been documented online before. Weirder, I actually found this video hidden within a released game! Check it out in all its 240p upscaled to HD glory! It's proper spoopy!

So where did I unearth this, I hear you ask? The game this trailer was found on is called Bokomu no Tatsujin, a quirky life sim created by Fujicom Co, who's only other released game on Dreamcast is the building topplin' sim Bomber Hehhe, which also has a trailer on this disc.

I plan to talk about Bokomu more in a future article, but to summarise there is a shop in this game that lets you purchase appliances for your home such as a computer, an air conditioner and - most importantly here - a television. Once you eventually pony up the cash for this TV you can view both the Bomber Hehhe and this horror game trailer on it.

It took me some time but I saved up enough cash to buy the telly...

...and this is how the trailer is displayed in-game. All squashed and rubbish.

Obviously the above is not a great way to watch the video so I directly extracted the TV.SFD file from Bokomu's GDI, which was thankfully at a proper 4:3 aspect ratio. This is how I actually discovered the video in the first place, rather than the technique described above, as I was digging through the files for reasons I will go in my upcoming Bokomu article. Oooh, intrigue!

Within the assets of the game there is this unused menu showing the two game trailers, where the game is listed as (roughly translated) 'Horror Short Stories', although that is likely to be a placeholder name.

I had a mooch around Fujicom's web archived website to see if there was any mention of the game but no dice. The only mentions of this games existence online is a IGN article from 5th June 2001 called 'New Dreamcast Titles revealed' which lists the game as 'If it Happens': the English text that appears at the start of the trailer, along with a list of other games that were cancelled such as 'Hamster Story' by Culture Brain, which was apparently a microphone compatible pet sim! Oo-er.

I also stumbled across this little snippet in an issue of Dorimaga magazine that is scanned and available on Sega Retro. Here is a very rough translation of what the article says:

"In this interactive adventure game, an old hotel on the outskirts of town has a new watchman. Inside, a mysterious story unfolds.  It's not just a building, it's a place of drama, fear, danger, and crazy scenarios."

All this evidence seems to point at 'If it Happens..' being the actual title of the game, as kind of broken English-y as that sounds. Apparently Fujicom also had a racing game in development for the Dreamcast called 'Top of the Formula Racing' (more wonderful broken English for you) that is also documented online in name only. A shame there wasn't a trailer for that hidden on Bokomu too!

Blowup! - Another unknown Dreamcast game has been found!

Not content with giving us just one new Dreamcast present for Christmas this year, the elves over on the Dreamcast-Talk forum have evidently been working tirelessly on the most recently dumped contents of a broken Dreamcast dev kit in an attempt to bring more festive joy to Dreamcast lovers all over the world.

The most recent discovery appears to be yet another previously unseen Dreamcast title from Red Lemon studios again: Blowup!. Another Dreamcast-Talk user, Ian Micheal, was able to get this game to boot in the early hours of this morning. 

What's particularly fascinating about this demo is that as you can see from the title screen above, it was ultimately intended for display at the E3 expo in the year 2000. This leads me to the assumption that, unlike The Simpsons: Bug Squad!, which was clearly just a developer pitching to a studio, Blowup! was a real game that that was actually in development heading for an actual release at some point.

The only part of this demo which actually runs at the moment is the title screen, which then loops to a promo screen highlighting all of the exciting features that Blowup! will offer, promising compelling gameplay and a rich, detailed story amongst other things. This would have been very common for game demos at the time, especially those playable at E3 so that the gaming press had an idea of what the full game would be like.

Blowup! never did see the light of day; potentially another victim of the Dreamcast's demise and the publisher just not seeing the return on investment on a game that would've likely not have seen shop shelves until 2001.

Unfortunately the demo will not load at the moment beyond the boot screen due to some missing texture files. But I have little doubt that if there is a way to get beyond these screens, the boffins working on it over on Dreamcast-Talk will find out soon enough. We will of course keep you updated here on the Junkyard!

In the meantime, it's fun to speculate on what this mouse wearing a Fez hat would get up to in Blowup!. He looks like a mischievous little blighter, don't you think? Maybe, judging by the second screen, he just fancies a game of pool? Muse away below or on Twitter.

UPDATE: The founder of Red Lemon Studios, Andy Campbell, has added some additional insight: "Blowup! was a puzzle platformer game where you controlled a character who would blow or suck a ball or balls over a level".

So there you have it, looks like it wasn't heading for a release after all!

Previously unknown Dreamcast game discovered - The Simpsons: Bug Squad!

Just when we thought that 2020's surprises were all but over, another gem is uncovered by the Dreamcast community!

Dreamcast-Talk user 'sreak' revealed in a recent forum post over at Dreamcast-Talk that they had a Dreamcast development kit that they were going to export the files from. The initial list of contents seemed to be fairly uninteresting, but things  - as they are known to do - developed quickly.

After dumping the contents, it became apparent that there was a very early playable version of a game that nobody knew existed. Behold: The Simpsons: Bug Squad!

There appears to be zero information about this game available anywhere, indicating that nobody even knew it was in development at the time. This isn't the first time hitherto unknown Dreamcast games have come to the fore - things like Millennium Racer and Deer Avenger 3 were complete unknowns when they leaked onto the internet.

The game certainly doesn't look like any other Simpsons themed games we've played and is a fairly bizarre use of the license - almost like a sort of Toy Commander or Roommania style thing but set inside 742 Evergreen Terrace. Perhaps this is why it didn't get any further in development? We can see from the title screen that the development team behind The Simpsons: Bug Squad! was Red Lemon Studios, who were also working on another Dreamcast game that never saw the light of day, Take the Bullet, which Tom expertly covered in his article on that game back in 2015. Update: it appears the same dev kit also contains a beta version of Take the Bullet - more on this soon!

Fascinating stuff, we're sure you'll agree! Hopefully at some point in the near future somebody with the know-how will export what remains of this mysterious title and create a playable version that can be burnt to a disc and finally experienced on the Dreamcast hardware it never managed to officially grace.

We've said it before and we'll say it again, it is absolutely amazing that even now, almost two full decades after the system's natural life was brought to an abrupt end, that we're still discovering things Dreamcast-related that have never been seen before. Thanks also go to Dreamcast-Talk moderator and all-round Dreamcast knowledge miner pcwzrd13 for bringing this to our attention

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter.

Update: Here is some footage of the tech demo, captured by pcwzrd13 from his DreamcasticChannel on YouTube - be sure to go over and subscribe!

Real Racer IX: Cancelled Game or Student Assignment?

I was browsing the hellscape of Reddit the other day, looking for something to frustrate me, when I found a rather interesting photo featuring demo footage of an unreleased Dreamcast game called Real Racer IX. Despite being tangled up in the antics of the Junkyard, I'd never heard of it. Not even a murmur. Real Racer IX never saw any kind of release, whether it be official or unofficial. All we have is the photograph below to serve as evidence of its existence.

This photo was taken during the Spring Tokyo Game Show of 2001, which was held from the 30th of March to the 1st of April. It shows a chap doing his best Wesley Snipes impression in a trendy leather jacket, as he plays the demo of Real Racer IX. Next to him, a much smarter-looking guy is watching him play. Obviously the assumption here is that the guy on the right was probably someone who had some kind of involvement with the development of the game, and was overseeing the demo booth. The game itself, like its name suggests, is a racing game, appearing to be of the long-distance running variety.

The gameplay onscreen shows a female athlete running down what looks like the longest, loneliest highway in existence. Despite the woman being the only runner on screen, the HUD shows a position counter of 6 out of 6, meaning there was bound to be a mob of computer opponents lurking somewhere around the corner ahead. The guy playing was probably just a bit rubbish.

Doing a reverse image search on the photo in question, I was led to one result: this old article on a Japanese gaming website called "Game Watch", detailing the Tokyo Game Show of Spring 2001. Browsing through, there's some bits about presentations from Nintendo (showing off the upcoming Game Boy Advance!), as well as Capcom and Konami, and it appears that Microsoft were gearing up to unleash their first ever game console into the Japanese video game market, with what looked like a pretty heavy advertising campaign, featuring Bill Gates holding a Burger in one hand and an Xbox controller in the other. This can be seen in the photo below, trapped under the most unphotogenic bowl of Ramen I've ever seen.

Relegated to the end of the article, is the only bit of Dreamcast-related information, and that is where we find the photo that prompted this entire search...

Stampede: The Lost Dreamcast Sheep Herding Sim

Of all the aspects of being a Dreamcast fan, discovering lost and cancelled games is by far the most fascinating to me. Yes, the games we actually got are numerous; and a large proportion of them are pretty darn good, but the merest glimpse at titles that never made it give us a tiny peek into an alternative reality. A reality where the Dreamcast was the commercial success it could have been, and a reality in which all those titles that were unceremoniously shelved received full retail releases.

There are some cancelled games that are widely known about and that have even been released in some form or another. Half-Life, Propeller Arena, Hellgate, Geist Force and PBA Bowling are famous examples; and more recently titles such as Agartha, Deer Avenger and Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters have shown us that there are still lost games waiting to be discovered. We can now add another to that ever growing list: Stampede.

You'd be forgiven for scratching your head at this point, as Stampede is likely a title you've never heard of. But there's a reason to be excited about this one - Stampede for Dreamcast was running well on Dreamcast hardware when it was cancelled, and now a playable build has found its way into the hands of Xeno Crisis developer Bitmap Bureau. What's even more interesting, is that the guys who make up Bitmap Bureau (developers of the upcoming Xeno Crisis) were part of the development studio that originally worked on Stampede all those years ago.

With this in mind, there's a very real chance that Stampede could finally see the light of day, nearly 20 years after it was canned. But what exactly is Stampede? And why should you care? Read on for the answers, and an exclusive interview with the game's creative director...

Deer Avenger 3: An Update

A few weeks ago we reported on the news that a Reddit user had stumbled across a previously unknown Dreamcast game - Deer Avenger 3 - while helping to clear out a basement for a fundraising sale. The story is brilliant and just shows that there are still surprises waiting to be discovered when it comes to the Dreamcast's library.

For the uninitiated, Deer Avenger 3 (also known as Deer Avenger 3D) was a PC game that parodied the popular Deer Hunter series and gave players the opportunity to take the fight to the hunters. Assuming the role of an anthropomorphic deer, players roam the wilderness looking for hunters to capture or kill. The game was released on PC in the early 2000s and was quite well received, but what nobody knew is that Westlake Interactive was apparently working on a Dreamcast port...and it's a pre-production GD of this very port that was found in a basement in New Jersey.

You couldn't make stuff like this up but as the recent discovery (and subsequent release) of Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters shows, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Anyway, I thought it was about time that we gave you an update on the discovery and just when we'll all be able to experience Deer Avenger 3 on our Dreamcasts. And well...it doesn't look promising at this point.

In the previous article I mentioned that several members of the Dreamcast community who are well versed in extracting game files from GDs were working with the disc's owner, but it now appears that this is not the case. Instead, wunderbreadv2 has set up a Go Fund Me in order to raise the sum of $1000 in order to release the game. At the time of writing, the campaign has received plenty of Facebook shares...but a total of $0 in donations. Now, allow me to be brutally honest on this whole thing: This Go Fund Me will probably not be funded, and the reasons are multiple.

Unreleased Dreamcast Game Deer Avenger 3 Discovered

As if the discovery of Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters wasn't enough, another previously unknown Dreamcast game has been unearthed. According to Reddit user wunderbreadv2, the pre-production GD-Rom of Deer Avenger 3 was found at a garage sale and represents yet another Dreamcast game that was never announced or even previewed by the gaming press.

Deer Avenger 3 was released on the PC however, and in it the player assumes the role of an anthropomorphic deer who turns the tables on the hunters and goes out into the wilderness to shoot humans. The game appears to have been fairly well received back when it was released in 2000 and the series as a whole comprises four other games, all of which are parodies of the Deer Hunter model. The GD in question has the title Deer Avenger 3 written on it in marker, along with the usual version number, date (16th August 2000) and the developer - Westlake Interactive. Westlake (now known as MacSoft) was quite a prolific developer and publisher back in the early to mid 2000s so it isn't hard to believe this is legit.

I reached out to wunderbreadv2 for more info on this incredible find, and how he came to own it:

"I actually found it [the Deer Avenger GD] in the basement of a women's club. They were hosting a garage sale to help out funding scholarships for high school seniors. As soon as I reached the shelves filled with VHS tapes I saw it unboxed - just the disk. The disk is a little bit scratched but I'm sure it will still run. The game was found in Bergen County, NJ."

- Reddit user wunderbreadv2

The last part is quite interesting as Westlake Interactive were based in Minnesota, yet the mysterious Deer Avenger 3 GD was discovered in New Jersey - a quick look at Google Maps will illustrate just how far apart those two states are. Quite how the disc came to be hidden away in the basement of a women's club adds further intrigue to the story.

Below is some footage of the PC version of Deer Avenger 3, to give an idea of how the Dreamcast version could potentially look:

At present, we don't know how complete the game on the disc is as the owner doesn't have access to a System Disc 2 - a type of boot disc that allows production Dreamcasts to run pre-production games. However, several members of The Dreamcast Junkyard's Facebook group have offered help and we are currently speaking to the owner of the disc with a view to investigating further and potentially getting the files dumped online. It's an exciting discovery and as we find out more about this mysterious and hitherto unannounced port, we'll be sure to keep you informed.

Previously Unknown Dreamcast Game Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters Discovered

This is pretty damn cool. Ever heard of Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters? Not many people have. It was developed by Creat Studio and released on the PC back in 1999 and it appears that a Dreamcast port was in the works. For whatever reason it was never shown to the public, the press...or anyone outside of Creat Studios by the looks of things. This is particularly odd because the game was recently discovered on a Dreamcast dev kit and it appears to be fully playable and complete!

Millennium Racer is a futuristic racer with combat elements in the same vein as Extreme G or WipEout, and looks as though it could have given the genre a shot in the arm as the only other titles in this style are limp to say the least. Pod 2 and Magforce Racing are the only true attempts at this style of game on the Dreamcast (I'm not counting Episode 1: Racer) and they're both pants.

Anyway, back to Millennium Racer. I was contacted a few weeks ago by the owner of the dev kit, a Dreamcast aficionado known as Kuririn84 and he told me the following:

"Hi, I just wanted to give you a heads up that I have found an unreleased Dreamcast game called Millenium Racer: Y2K Fighters. 

"I am working with another member of the community to get it running, and I do plan on releasing the game and files to the community. I know the PC version was released, but there was never an announcement of a Dreamcast port. The files I found are on the HD of my Dev kit, so certainly Dreamcast files. I'm working with another member of the community to get it running.

"I have sent the game to two people, one of them was unable to do anything with it, the other person is very well known in the Dreamcast scene and seems confident they can get it running. If he can get it running I will put the game out there for the community, if not I will post the files for people to look at. I've been a Dreamcast fan and a member of the community since 1998, I hope this can be my contribution."

- Kuririn84

Since then, it appears that Millennium Racer has indeed been extracted from the dev kit on which it has been hiding for all these years, and the best bit is that it's 100% playable...