For Whom The Bell Tolls...

Question: What is the greatest piece of video game music ever written?

Answer: The Justice Ray, by Hyakutaro Tsukumo

This is the face of unparalleled musical genius. Truly.

What do you mean you've never heard of it? It's Tsukomo-san's magnum opus, and its legacy is entwined with Sega's own destiny. Before we skip ahead though, lets start at the beginning - the very beginning.

Dream Room UK 2011 Marathon on YouTube!

If you missed my Dream Room UK 2011 livestream marathon from a few months ago, you could find it all on my livestream page, but now I have started uploading it to YouTube as well in 2 hour chunks with bits like me walking off to grab things cut out to save some time! The rest of it can be seen below!

Part 2 here. 
Part 3 here.
Part 4 here.

SegaGaga Translation project Interview on Racketboy

Racketboy has just posted a superb interview with the manager of the Segagaga translation project James Howell. it gives an in-depth look into the process, the reasoning, and the troubles that come with translating such a unique game that is so rooted in Japanese game culture and the many in jokes that even many Japanese natives may not get, let alone us. One thing that is noted is that the translation will be released as a patch as they do not intend to release a hacked version of the game itself as that would be breaking Sega's copyright of the game. They really do have a lot of passion and respect for the source matreial and i really can not wait to see more of this translation come to fruition.

Segagaga Translation Project Resumes!

A long while back, a group of english speaking SEGA fans made it their mission to translate the Dreamcast cult classic Segagaga. During the past year and a half, the project slowed to a near halt. Thankfully, things seem to be speeding up again as the Segagaga Translation Blog has returned with new posts and an update on the project! Check out their blog for all the details, and make sure to wish them luck!

I can't wait to see the finished product.

Check it out: Segagaga Translation Blog

DCJY InsideOut: Segagaga Box Set + Perfect File Book

This is a video from sometime in 2009 I found on my hard drive that I never got around to editing and uploading for some reason. Better late than never I suppose! This is of course that rather wonderful Segagaga box set that I bought back then, with the t-shirt, pin set, organizer and game in a DVD case. I posted some photos and info about it here back when I got it, but somehow this video got put aside until I found it today.

I have another InsideOut video that I made a few months back that I've also finally sorted out that will be up (probably) tomorrow and then after that I will work on some new videos with any luck!

The Segagaga Box set: Inside Out

Back in 2000 I learned about Segagaga in magazines, and found the official Japanese website that had all sorts of great images of the mysterious game, including all the limited edition content made for it including a Mega Drive style VMU and the collectors edition box set of the game. The game sounded so awesome to me that not only did I name my first foray into website making after it (which later became Mangagaga, where characters from the game made appearances in the comics) and also saved a whole bunch of the images which are now used as elements of Sega Memories.

I've been wanting to own this game ever since I heard about it, even if it's all in Japanese so I probably wouldn't get that far in it, considering it's an RPG of sorts. Particularly I wanted the box set that contained some rather fancy goodies. For years now I've been attempting to get one on eBay when they rarely pop up, getting outbid left right and center by people willing to blow more cash on it than me. Recently I found one by searching for 'SGGG' rather than 'Segagaga' that had a starting price of £50, and in a stroke of sheer luck, no one else even attempted to outbid me for it! Even better: the item was located in the UK so the postage wasn't as high as all the ones coming from Japan before it. It showed up at last the other day, and here it is!

A pretty simple white box with the SGGG logo. Open it up to reveal..

Even more SGGG logos! The presentation is very simple, and not the colorful craziness of the Samba De Amigo maraca set, but then the Dreamcast box itself was like this too with just a logo on it.

The game itself comes in a odd box. It looks like a DVD case but is twice as thick and also a little bit taller. Inside it has two disc holders (even though the game is only one) and the manual is CD sized, just like the one you'd get in the regular release in a CD case. A shame they couldn't make a book shaped manual with bigger art to match the box. Oh well.

Contained in the little white box is one of the nicest goodies: the pin set. There's a pin here for the logos of all of Sega's significant consoles from the Sega Mark III (AKA the Master System) to the Dreamcast along with a SGGG pin. The box is kind of cheap feeling but the pins are sweet.

The T-shirt at first glance looks just as minimalistic as the box, which nothing more than a logo on it. Take it out of it's re-sealable package and check out the back however..

..and you get this fantastic black and white image of Sega's many console controllers dangling and a huge Sega 'S' along with the words 'Generation S 21st century, Sega control the world". Of course they do. Ahem.

Finally there's this little black organizer book. The first pages include the lyrics and a music sheet of the 'Segagaga March' theme tune. The next two pages include some info about some of the oddball characters you'll fight in the game (including Alex kidd). After that it goes into normal organizer pages of dates, phone numbers, addresses etc. Oddly enough all these pages are in English.

As for the game itself. I've played it before via a CD-R copy of it, although on that to fit the game on a CD many of the cut scenes were removed. There is a translation guide for the first chapter of the game on gamefaqs which I used but once you get to that point you get into the game development simulation which is far more complicated as you have to manage your staff while they tap away at their computers programming games for you (the results of which turn out to be classic Sega games from all their consoles or parody games like 'Mortal Wombat' and 'Sega Lolly'). With the CD-R I could also rip a bunch of artwork from the game and screenshots from the cut scenes (the ones on it, that is)

Yes, those are the troops from the Mega Drive game ESWAT. GEEK OUT.

To see more of the game I dug out my trusty DC Tool disc which contains hundreds of VMU Save files, including a complete save file for this game. You can't technically play the game with this, but you can check out all the wonderful cut scenes, the games that your staff develop and best of all the unlockable mini-games.


I'm sure you've all seen this footage of a scrolling shooter where you fight each of Sega's consoles that spit out sprites from Golden Axe, Fantasy Zone and Space Harrier II amongst other things, but what you might not know is this mini-game is pretty much what the canceled Thunder Force VI for the Dreamcast could have been like. There is a mode with just the bosses one after the other but also a mode where you get a full stage of enemies (which include pink Playstation controllers, CDs and Mark III controllers) before fighting each boss. This mode is almost like a full scrolling shooter in itself, and is more fun to play than quite a few full shmup releases on the Dreamcast, even if it is a bit short. This mode also features some stunning remixes of classic Sega music, even Vectorman is represented!

The other mini games include one where you have to push Dreamcast boxes into a lift which is essentially a clone of Soko-ban, that also features music from Pengo. There's 40 puzzle in total to solve, which get rather tricky. Finally there's a game that requires you clean dirty Sega arcade cabinets before the time runs out by rapidly bashing the A and B buttons. It's amusing for a bit and has rankings to beat. To me the game was worth buying for the shmup mini game alone, it's amazing. I'm going to rip some footage of these which I'll upload later. If you missed it before check out this great video review of the game by the Happy Console gamer.

Segagaga Review by the HappyConsoleGamer

If you've never seen the late Japanese Dreamcast release Segagaga then prepare to cream your pants with Sega fandom glee. If you thought Sega Superstars Tennis was a love letter to Sega fans you have seen nothing until you have seen this. I've personally known about it for years (why do you think my old web comic was called Mangagaga?) but I still sadly don't own it. This guy in the video above however, does own it and he owns the special edition box set they made that contains all sorts of neat stuff like a set of pin badges for every Sega console. Way too awesome.

If your thinking the heaps of Japanese text in the game will put you off, luckily there is a guy who is dedicating himself to translating it. You can check out his progress at his 1up blog. He is also looking for help on the programming side of things, so if you have the technical know how and own the game you could help out! Once again talented fans are keeping the Dreamcast and it's games that many may of missed alive.