Dreamcast indie darlings Senile Team, creators of the excellent Rush Rush Rally Racing, have just put up pre-orders for their upcoming Dreamcast release, Intrepid Izzy, a charming platformer complete with its own beat-em-up twist on the genre. Intrepid Izzy hit Kickstarter back in 2017 with a campaign that covered PC, Dreamcast and PS4 releases. The game released on Steam in July of last year, and now the Dreamcast version that we've all been eagerly awaiting for is imminent too! Senile Team are trying to aim for a release sometime in August, but it all depends on manufacturers and deliveries. Be sure to follow them on Twitter and watch out for a more concrete release date.
For those who didn't back the Kickstarter, but are looking to pick this game up, pre-orders are now live on two websites: UK-based WAVE game studios and Germany-based DragonBox for PAL and Japanese style box arts respectively. If you are living in the UK like myself, I'd recommend purchasing from WAVE, as DragonBox currently has a minimum purchase of €157 required to checkout for those living in the UK. Maybe something to do with the VAT stuff that came into effect in January? No idea. Obviously not throwing any shade at DragonBox, I've purchased some excellent stuff from there before, just want to make people aware before they get confused as to why they can't check out! WAVE also ships to the USA. (Update: WAVE are now offering a Japanese-style copy)Indie Dreamcast platformer Intrepid Izzy is up for pre-order!
Brand new 'The A to Z of Dreamcast Games - A Collector's Guide' incoming, including 'physical' version
We're having a bit of a book bonanza at the Junkyard this year! Not only are we helping to contribute towards Andrew Dickinson's Dreamcast: Year Two and fellow Junkyard member James Harvey's recently announced new project covering Dreamcast racing games, I can now confirm that this year will also see the release of the new and updated 'The A to Z of Dreamcast Games - A Collector's Guide'
A few years ago, I released a free downloadable guide, which proved quite popular - currently racking up around 7,000 downloads, it was an attempt to catalogue every single retail Dreamcast release from all regions (and independent releases as well), give a brief review of each title, and give collectors, or just the curious, a handy companion on their journey through the Dreamcast library.
Well, as promised all those years ago, an update is about to land - and this time, there's going to be a physical release too. A downloadable version, for free, will still be available in the future, but a limited number will be printed first and available to anyone who wishes to have a 516 page 'pocket' guide close at hand. Or propping a door open, or for whatever reason you wish, really.
So what's new this time around?
- Updated and corrected release listings, including all new Indie releases up to (at least) April 2021. Now covering nearly 700 individual games, and around 1,900 different versions.
- Covers included for each and every variant release around the world.
- Revised collecting guides for each region and indie games.
- An updated 'upcoming games' section, listing all currently 'in development' titles.
- Various 'boxout' sections throughout the guide, dealing with different areas of the wider Dreamcast collecting world, from regional oddities and budget releases, to homebrew games and translation projects.
- Will include separate 'checklists' for each major collecting area - no need to deface the guide if you don't want to!
Review: Flea!
2020. It's not been great, has it? But whilst we all seclude ourselves in our homes, proclaiming how bored we are whilst ignoring our game backlogs, something has been stirring in the Dreamcast Indie scene. The year kicked off with the rather glorious Xeno Crisis - perhaps the finest Indie game yet on the DC, and we've got some delights on their way with the high speed thrills of Arcade Racing Legends from JoshProd, the wonderful Xenocider in all it's 3D glory from Retro Sumus, and Indie masters Senile Team back with the fantastic looking Intrepid Izzy. That's not even mentioning the impending release of Summoning Signals, JoshProd's Indie onslaught with 8(8!) more titles, and almost certainly others that we've simply forgotten to mention! It's a never ceasing cause of amazement for all of us here at the Junkyard that we could see more than a dozen titles added to the library in a matter of months.
It seems though, that even more is on the horizon - including a game which has come as somewhat of a surprise - Flea! which is out now and available from the developers own Etsy page here. A successfully funded Kickstarter project this year, the game was designed for the NES, but has jumped it's way onto our chosen platform, caught us all by surprise, and left us itching to tell you more. I promise that's the last awful Flea pun I'll be making...
Playing as your cute little Flea protagonist Henry, your task is to collect blood from the games 80 levels, blood which is being horded by the greedy King, and is desperately needed by the Refu-fleas. To that end, each unit of blood you collect can, at certain points, be converted to extra lives. It means that very quickly you'll rack up substantial numbers of lives - but that's something you'll most certainly need here. The game creator, Alastair Low (featured on the DCJY before, for the very cool Dungeon Ross), clearly has a fondness for tough NES era platformers, as Flea! is designed with plenty of tricky sections and death is frequent. Luckily, such death is not permanent in Flea's world, for a few seconds later you're back on the hunt for blood at the beginning of the level. Just as quickly as you build the life stock up though, you'll see the numbers going down when you get to one of the games tougher stages.
The game's deaths don't come by way of Uzi wielding parasites or anything so extreme though - here, death will come by way of your continually jumping little critter finding his way into a particularly nasty obstacle. These litter the stages, and whilst only a few syringes seem to be your issue early on, you soon come face to face with other creatures and more extravagant obstacles. Not every creature you meet is a bad guy though - there are plenty of colourful and interesting characters throughout the game to interact with as well.
The game is a tough one to master, in the time honoured 8-bit fashion. However, this toughness doesn't come with unfairness - if you die, it's due to a mistake you've made. Control is generally simple - Henry jumps continually, but you can press the A button to keep his jumps lower (a skill you will require early on in the game), and later on you can dash as well (although I've got to be honest, I've not actually got that far yet! I've never said I'm any good at games...). The main challenge here is to maximise your blood collection whilst navigating the obstacles with well timed jumps. The instant restart of the single screen levels makes any frustration minimal, luckily, but the game does induce a feeling of rage when your life supply dwindles as you fail at a decidedly crafty stage for the umpteenth time - but there's a not insignificant amount of satisfaction when you finally make it. It's a classic risk-reward strategy of gaming of yore, tried and tested, and it works well here, a tribute to the games developer once more.
At times the game does mix things up a little, ditching the single screen approach and going for a forced scrolling platforming experience - a sort of endless runner type affair, only, er, it ends. It shows a little bit of versatility off that makes for a nice change of pace, and again technically, it runs smoothly.
Visually, it's not going to blow anyone away. It's clearly a NES game, with chunky pixels and bright colours, a look evocative of an age before the Dreamcast, but one which is very much back in fashion. Of course, it looks this way through functionality (being an actual NES game) rather than style alone, but it's competent, cute, fun and cheery. In fact, I'm officially starting a campaign to get Flea! to become the official mascot of the DC indie scene, as I look at his cute little face looking at me from my VMU during the game. The stages vary in their colour schemes - different beasts that the fleas infest - but all have that 8-bit colour and brightness to them, which is very visually appealing.
There's no denying the games NES roots though. The pixels are colourful, the action is smooth, but this isn't the sort of title that's going to push the hardware. That doesn't matter at all, of course, as the core gameplay is fun and challenging enough to justify itself a place in the library, but we know there will be some out there who will baulk at the idea of a Dreamcast game looking this way. To them, we blow a giant raspberry. Personally, it's a style of game we've not had much of on the console, and I welcome it's arrival.
I also welcome the chiptune music, so insanely catchy that I found myself humming it to myself on the bus this morning. It perfectly captures the fun, nostalgic retro-ness of the game, and deserves special mention just for that. The packaging is also great - a US style look (despite Lowtek Games being a Scottish based developer), it has a great disc image, and full colour manual (although it's only 2 pages), and the cover is great. For a game none of us were expecting, it's level of professionalism in design was surprising but most welcome.
The game is available for £30 from Lowtek Games Etsy store, limited to just 200 numbered copies, and you can find the games creator Alastair on Twitter so go give him a follow!
BREAKING NEWS: Five new Dreamcast games incoming!
- Armed Seven - a mech-based side-scrolling shooter by Astro Port (2015)
- Finding Teddy - a pixel art point and click adventure by Storybird (2013)
- Magic Pockets - a platform game by the Bitmap Brothers (1991)
- Captain Tomaday - a Neo Geo vertical-scrolling "cute-em-up" by Visco (1999)
- FX Unit Yuki: The Henshin Engine - an old school action platformer (2018)
NEWS FLASH! FX Unit Yuki set for March 2019 release
The Dreamcast Games of 2018
If you recall, 2017 was an unprecedented bumper year for Dreamcast games. There was a total of 27 physical releases last - er.. the year before - including nine brand new titles, various re-releases and packaging variations. Along with the physical releases, we also got out hands on the previously unpublished game Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters during 2017 as well. It was going to be hard for 2018 to top this lot.
Just what did the year that heralds the 20th anniversary of our little white box have in store for us? Let's take a stroll back down memory lane through the Dreamcast releases of 2018.
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Every Dreamcast release of 2018 |
SEGAbits Swingin' Report Show podcast interviews SEGA tournament champ and former Capcom employee Chris Tang
This past weekend was the culmination of SEGA Week at Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, IL. The week consisted of ten tournaments on new (well, new to the arcade) SEGA arcade machines as well as other special events which were held on SEGAbits Saturday. One big happening on the big final day was the reveal of Strike Harbinger, a very early look at an upcoming indie title from HitSparks Games which is led by competitive gamer and developer Chris Tang.
In the past, Chris took part in the historic 1990 Nintendo World Championships and was the winner of SEGA's Sonic & Knuckles Rock the Rock competition in 1994. Since then, Chris has worked on games at Atari and Capcom, including Gauntlet IV, Primal Rage, Street Fighter III, Rival Schools, Tech Romancer and Power Stone. Now, Chris is hard at work on a new game inspired by classic SEGA titles like Space Harrier and Phantasy Star. The game, titled Strike Harbinger, combines the fast paced forward flying gameplay of Space Harrier with the RPG and combat elements of Phantasy Star while utilizing a unique control structure that evokes Virtual On.
I had the pleasure to meet Chris and the game’s Senior Artist Kiyoshi Okuma, whose past work includes Gauntlet: Legends, World Series Baseball 2K2, The Sims 2 and Darkspore. I also had the honor to be the first member of the public to play the game, and following that experience I chatted with Chris about his life as a tournament gamer, his career, and his plans for Strike Harbinger.
I wanted to share this episode on the 'Yard as I thought fans of Capcom's Dreamcast titles would enjoy some of the stories Chris shared. So give it a listen and enjoy!
More ways to listen:
[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]
Review: Fruit'Y
Fruit'Y is actually a freeware game that is available to download from the Retroguru website, but I decided to visit the Dragon Box shop and buy a physical copy because (as mentioned) it's a new game for less than the price of a Pot Noodle multi-pack. And I'm pretty sure that playing Fruit'Y won't give me extreme constipation followed by a bout of violent, explosive diarrhoea...although this is yet to be confirmed.
New Dreamcast Puzzler Fruit'Y Available Now
The best bit about this new release is that it only costs €2.99/£2.21/$3.36 (plus shipping) and comes on a printed disc in a DVD style case. I've already placed my order so will be giving my thoughts on it when it arrives, but in the meantime here's the release trailer:
It's a really good time to be a Dreamcast owner right now, and it only seems to be getting better. You can grab Fruit'Y here and read more about it at the official Retroguru website.
Source: Dreamcast Today
Xbox One Platformer Volgarr The Viking Now On DC
As stated in the 'Read First or Die' section from the Dreamcast port's website, Marc Hall was allowed access to the game's assets and source code by the original developer Crazy Viking Studios. What this means is that while it is not an official release, the port does have the blessing of the creator so it's all above board. The best bit about all of this? The game is totally free and available to download and burn to a CD-R right flipping now!
Ghost Blade Release Trailer Hits
According to the Hucast website, features include:
- Beautiful, detailed High-res Graphics
- 5 Stage with HUGE Boss Enemies
- 3 Player ships with different gun types
- Instant Respawn
- Auto-bomb enabled novice mode for beginners
- Arcade Gameplay and Addictive Scoring System
- Incredible Soundtrack composed by Rafael Dyll
- 2-player mode for addictive fun
It will also be compatible with the VGA box and arcade stick.
The wait is almost over, but in the meantime Hucast has released a trailer showing off some of the features you can expect once Ghost Blade hits a Dreamcast near you. Enjoy:
Developer Interview: Retro Sumus' Carlos Oliveros
DCJY: Could you tell us a little bit about Retro Sumus? Who makes up the team and what are your roles?
Carlos Oliveros: Retro Sumus is both our name and our tag line, so to speak. It's Latin for "we are back," or "we are retro" which in my humble opinion makes for a nice Twitter hashtag, don't you think?
#Yes
Right now, the team is made up of four fine gentlemen: Daniel aka Chui, Abel, Juanjo and yours truly. Chui is like Cypher from the X-men and understands any computer language you throw at him, or like Cypher from the Matrix now that I think of it, as he seems to see the world in code. Abel is our 3D designer and the owner of the brain behind Project Q (we'll get to that). Juanjo is in charge of the sound department, and I'm the main writer/translator and the communication guy.
For our first announced project AMEBA, we're recruiting a 2D artist and two more screenwriters to help us put everything together, as it's quite a big story for such a small team.
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The original AMEBA teaser artwork |
In short, yes. I was one of the translators for Watermelon's Pier Solar and, after the Mega Drive release and the fans asking for a PC and a Dreamcast conversion, I introduced Chui to Tulio from Watermelon, as they were looking for a capable programmer to port the original Mega Drive code to more modern platforms. Being the awesome fella that he is, and the creator (or co-creator) of so many emulators and tools for the Dreamcast and other machines, he jumped at the chance and has become Tulio's right hand since, as far as I know. I only knew Chui for his emulators and had talked to him a few times before that, but we began working closer and chatting every other day from then on, as he worked on porting the game and I translated all the new content.
I think Chui brought Abel with him to Pier Solar. There was a Mode7 level in the original game which had to be remade from scratch for the conversion, so he did the 3D for that stage. That initial work was in fact the germ for Project Q.
Juanjo had never worked on any videogame related project. He's a piano teacher and producer, and the current keyboardist for spanish bands Efecto Mariposa and Los Aslándticos. When I told him about my ideas for AMEBA, he didn't even let me finish and said he wanted in. I was honoured, as he knew I couldn't possibly pay him (for now anyway) and didn't care at all. He immediately improvised a beautiful piano tune that will become one of the main themes for the game.
James & Watch: Arm
Developer Interview: Elysian Shadows' Falco Girgis
DCJY: Could you give a little bit of background on the Elysian Shadows team – who you are and what your roles are in developing Elysian Shadows?
Falco Girgis: Right now we’re just four dudes from different countries who work together every day in our underwear via Skype, haha! Falco Girgis and Tyler Rogers are the resident rednecks, from Alabama. Falco is the one behind the fancy tech like the lights and physics. He’s the engine and toolkit developer and the resident graphics guru. Tyler Rogers marries Falco’s tech with the pixel art and audio to achieve the creative vision we’re aiming for through his Lua scripting. He’s focused more on the gameplay experience while Falco is focusing more on the technology powering the game. Patrick Kowalik and Daniel Tindall are our pixel artist and our level designer respectively. Patrick lives in Poland and Dan lives in Britain. We met both of them through our YouTube series, “Adventures in Game Development.” They both messaged us looking to join our cause.
Indie Review: Powder
I'm talking about learning spells, calculating hit points and wading through loads of text. Frankly, I just find traditional RPGs boring. That's just my (admittedly ignorant) opinion and I totally respect that people reading this may have just spat either cornflakes or a Pot Noodle (or both?) all over their computer or phone screen, but I haven't even attempted to play Skies of Arcadia yet because I just know what I'm going to get in that particular package; and I spent about 8 minutes playing Final Fantasy 7 before I removed it from my PlayStation and stuck Alien Trilogy back in. You can take a horse (me) to water (RPGs), but you can't make it drink (play them). Brackets were used in that last metaphor to clarify what I was trying to convey with my cack-handed grasp of wurds and stuff. Keeping that last sentence at the forefront of your cerebellum, allow me to explain that very recently I was made aware of a home brew roguelike RPG that has been ported to the Dreamcast and can be played using an SD Reader.
Powder started life as a Game Boy Advance project and is the brainchild of programmer Jeff Lait. Writing on the Powder website, Jeff explains that the game was borne out of his desire to play a roguelike RPG on his handheld:
Since the GBA original, Powder has been ported to various other formats including the Nintendo DS, Windows, Macintosh and Linux. Recently though, Dreamcast.es forum admin Indiket successfully translated the source over to the Dreamcast and the source has - rather helpfully - been turned into an SD Reader-compatible ISO file by DCeric so that morons like me can get involved and begin dungeon crawling.
Atari Jaguar Indie Titles Coming to Dreamcast?
The reason I bring up the Atari Jaguar is that I recently discovered that Orion, the independent developer responsible for several recent Atari Jaguar cartridge and CD-based adventure games is considering porting his wares to the Dreamcast. In a post on both the Dreamcast-Talk and RetroCollect forums, Orion asked whether gamers would be interested in seeing four recent titles make the leap from the Atari to Sega formats:
New SLaVE Trailer Shows Off Gameplay Footage
With AMEBA, Elysian Shadows, Hypertension and SLaVE all on the horizon, the future is looking gloriously bright for Dreamcast fans.
New Indie Title Announced: AMEBA
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This isn't AMEBA - it's just to give a feel for the style of game |
There's no official statement yet on the funding the AMEBA project will need, but Kickstarter is just one of the options being considered at the moment. If it can reach the level of popularity that Falco Girgis’ Elysian Shadows has, we can’t see why won’t be enjoying AMEBA in the not too distant future. Keep an eye on the official website for upcoming announcements and developments on AMEBA.
In the meantime, here's a first look at the AMEBA teaser trailer:
New indie release announced: SLaVE!
Feels like a tradition now for a Dreamcast indie game to be revealed on this anniversary date, doesn't it? At least I hope it hangs around as a tradition anyway. GoatStore Publishing have just revealed via Dreamcast Scene that SLaVE, a doom-like FPS with Robotron 2084 stylings will be released on Dreamcast in April 2015, and is available to pre-order in limited edition and limited limited edition versions. No that's not a typo, they are actually called that. You can get an additional 5% off the price with the voucher code TJOOS as well!
"This is what happens if Robotron 2084 and DOOM got together and had an illegitimate lovechild. SLaVE is the timewarp of 1984's aesthetic and 1994's tech to make a game that is uniquely 2014. It is relentless neon arcade blasting action from a first-person tech utilizing features in the extended DOOM engine 3DGE that gamers could only imagine in 1984, or 1994 for that matter." - Goatstore
The trailer above is from quite a while back, back when it was just known to be a PC game. It's creator Jay Townsend is an animator and game designer I have been following for years and I had been watching the progress of this game over time, so I'm delighted to discover that this is making it's way to the Dreamcast next year!