Soulcalibur II on Sega Dreamcast: Who Would the Exclusive Character Have Been?

One of my earliest memories as a Dreamcast owner was playing Soulcalibur and frankly being amazed at how it looked and played. I had never even heard of the "Soul" series before, let alone seen the arcade game it was based on. My purchase had been entirely fuelled by magazine reviews in all their static glory, so finally seeing it running was one of those special moments of awe you'd get as a gamer during that era.

Despite not being a Sega game, it is a title that is culturally linked to the Dreamcast by many. Yet by the time the sequel hit in 2002, the Dreamcast had sadly stepped out the ring (RING OUT!), leaving the follow-up to find its new home split between the Xbox (Dreamcast 2) the GameCube (the other Dreamcast 2) and the PlayStation 2 (Dreamcast stand). 

Each edition came with an additional fighter exclusive to that console. For the GameCube it was Link from the Legend of Zelda series, Xbox had Spawn, and the PS2 had Heihachi Mishima, who is apparently from Tekken (who I had to look up for this article as I honestly had no memory of the PS2 special guest).

The point of this whole preamble is actually to set me up to share a question that I've long pondered...

"If the Dreamcast had actually received Soulcalibur II, which character would have been the console-exclusive fighter?" 

In an alternative timeline where the Dreamcast had powered through and continued to succeed where we saw it fail, it would've ultimately received Soulcalibur 2 and other Soulcalibur sequels on follow-up Sega consoles. Also in that universe, there is a fan blog of PS2 fans moaning that if only people had been more into DVDs as a concept, the PS2 could have succeeded and Sony would still be making consoles today, rather than eventually being acquired by Philips Electronics...

Anyway, let's get to looking and speculating at the Dreamcast-exclusive characters that we might have had a chance to play as. 

Obvious characters tier

Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue

Given that Shenmue was based on Virtua Fighter tech and design principles, it's perfectly conceivable that Namco would've just did the obvious and slotted Ryo straight into the game. The only problem is that Soulcalibur is a weapon-based fighting game and Shenmue is more about advanced fisticuffs, but Ryo does find a sword guard in the first Shenmue, so maybe he could've just pivoted to using a sword? Failing that, he could even just have used one of the forks from the front of his forklift if needed, or the handle bars from a Hang-On arcade machine. To be fair, the PS2-exclusive Heihachi was weaponless in that version of Soulcalibur 2, although this does seem at odds with the rest of the roster to me.

Every bout could have ended with "I won't let you down, Father" or some other stoic phrase about loss and regret, or maybe a "Maybe I'll have some more fun?" This would've opened the way for having Lan Di potentially as a boss too, similar to what they would later do with Yoda, Darth Vader and Starkiller in Soulcalibur 4.

Wipeout Ported, Segagaga Fan Translation Breakthroughs, Speed Devils now Online - Dreamcast News Round-Up April 2025

I must confess, there’s been a flurry of Dreamcast news these last couple of months that has largely passed me by. Distracted by the day job, some new(ish) part-time studies, and about a billion hours of pointing up the ugly paving slabs in my back garden (still somehow unfinished), I’d taken my eye off the ball. Fortunately though, a rainy Sunday has presented me with the opportunity to get caught up, and rather than taking notes just for my own benefit, I thought I may as well draft a news round-up for the Junkyard.

So, after dusting off my keyboard, pinching a list off Lewis, and conducting a systematic desktop review of relevant sources (skimming Dreamcast Talk), this is what I’ve managed to drum up. In no particular order, here’s what’s been happening in the Dreamcast scene lately.

Get in loser, we’re playing Dreamcast online

I know some folks take little interest in this aspect of Sega’s swansong console, but I MUST urge them to reconsider at every available opportunity, as 2025 is arguably the best time to be playing the Dreamcast online since its commercial heyday. We’re only in April and online multiplayer modes for several titles have already been launched or revived this year.

Most recently, in March, Speed Devils Online was brought back online thanks to the sterling work of Shuouma and flyinghead. As explained by PC Wizard in his Dreamcast Live blog post, Shu started work on this title way back in 2017, with some of us hoping that it could be cracked reasonably easily given that the game shares server code with the likes of POD 2 and Monaco Grand Prix Online (all developed by Ubisoft). Alas, it wasn’t as simple as that, but thankfully, eight years on, flyinghead has picked up Shu’s groundwork and managed to finally solve the puzzle.

Speed Devils Online opening screen, courtesy of Sega Retro.

Rewinding back a little further, in January the Dreamcast ports of two colossal PC titles were brought online. First of all, NuQuake, a version of Quake ported to the Dreamcast (thanks to mrneo420, dreameatergames, Ian Michael, BERO and Kazade), was brought online out of nowhere by a fellow called Maximqad. Why would you want to play the original Quake when the sublime Quake III Arena is available I hear you ask? Well, for one thing, NuQuake supports up to 16 players in a single match, far more than any of the officially licensed Dreamcast titles were able to manage. Fair warning though, if you do try NuQuake out, then a Dreamcast Broadband Adapter is highly recommended, as performance via dial up is currently still pretty sketchy.

The second port of a monster PC title that was brought online for the Dreamcast in January was no less than Counter Strike. Granted, unlike NuQuake which is publicly available, this title is still very much a work in progress and remains in a closed testing phase for now. Nevertheless, footage has been published by The Sega Guru showing the online multiplayer mode functioning via real hardware which is tantalising in and of itself. So, who’s responsible for this development? Maximqad of course. They’ve come out of left field, are rapidly stacking up big wins, and we’re all for it. God speed.

If battling it out over a phone line isn’t your vibe, then there are plenty of other reasons to get your Dreamcast online. For one, you could browse through the hundreds of thousands of internet radio stations available via the refreshed DCPlaya software released by Delux in February. Or, maybe you want to back-up your VMU saves, but don’t have a VM2 or one of those wacky cables Lik-Sang pushed back in the day? Well, now there is a web browser-based option in the wonderful Cloud VMU produced by Robert Dale Smith.

2025: year of the port

The last few months have seen an unprecedented wave of hefty high-quality ports released for our beloved little white box. Sometimes this blog may come across a little hyperbolic, but in this case I reckon there are reasonable grounds for getting hyped, and each of the following deserve your attention for varying reasons:

Wipeout box art snippet nabbed from Laced Records.

This month (April 2025) jnmartin84 released a port of the eternally cool Wipeout to the Dreamcast, which commentators such as The Sega Guys are (reasonably) touting as the best version of the game to date. Feature complete, running at 60fps, and with input remapping to allow for the Dreamcast controller, this is exactly the kind of work that we love to see. Check out the project’s GitHub page for more details.

Jnmartin84? Doesn’t that username ring a bell? Ah yes, that’s because in January, they also released a virtually perfect port of Doom 64 that features a whole suite of enhancements, some of which are exclusive to the Dreamcast edition, including real-time lighting. A gushing overview and interview with the developer from the Junkyard's founder, Tom Charnock, can be found here. 

Unless you’ve been entirely cut off from civilization lately, you’ll probably know that an alpha port of Grand Theft Auto 3 for the Dreamcast (yes, that still seems ludicrous to type) was released to the world on New Years Eve 2024. Without being paid a penny, a phenomenal international team of volunteers led by skmp achieved what many had thought would be impossible, thereby resolving a debate that has been running ceaselessly in the scene for nearly a quarter century. Oh, and as if that wasn’t impressive enough, they followed it up with a port of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in April, as covered by Lewis for the Junkyard.

Ken Rosenberg upon reading this blog post...

Unwilling to let the momentum fade, skmp is now beavering away at porting a more contemporary title, The Liquid Jet, to the Dreamcast too. In fact, Sad Mask Party’s “slimy and psychedelic” PC adventure game is so fresh that only a demo is available right now. It is hoped that the first level will be playable by the end of this month – stay tuned for further updates.

Dreamcast Millennium Cup - The Celebrity Football Competition Lost to Time

I love a bit of footy. I also love the Dreamcast. When the two collide, I sit up and take notice. Indeed, over the years here at the Dreamcast Junkyard, we've pored over the various digital representations of the beautiful (and not-so-beautiful) game pressed to GD-ROM, as well as the somewhat questionable sponsorship deals SEGA Europe entered into with football clubs across the continent. Hell, we even looked somewhat briefly at the Dreamcast Beach Football Challenge which was held in July 2000 in the exotic environs of...erm...Richmond, Surrey.

Richmond was the natural choice for beach football. 

But there was another Dreamcast-themed footy event which preceded the Dreamcast Beach Football Challenge; an event which until very recently had completely passed me by, and an event which is almost impossible to find any real information on, even though photographic evidence confirms it was pretty well publicised, featured quite a few celebrity competitors and was even shown on Sky TV.

Now, this all stems from a listing that recently appeared on eBay for a football shirt listed as a 'genuine rare 1999 Dreamcast Millennium Cup celebrity retro football shirt' (thanks to my eagle-eyed Dreamcast Junkyard colleague Kev Mason for the heads up). Intrigued, and initially a little skeptical of the title of the listing, I looked deeper into the background of this shirt, and I feel I may have inadvertently slipped down yet another Dreamcast rabbit hole of lost media. Buckle up for the tale of the Dreamcast Millennium Cup 5-a-side football tournament.

Screenshot in case someone with £50 to spare sees this before I cash my giro.
Update: Kev bought the shirt.

Before I continue, I must warn you that everything I've gleaned about this competition is derived from the scant information I can find online and so there's some guesswork included, but I thought I'd document my insanity search results here for posterity. Where else than the internet's premier repository for useless Dreamcast nonsense that only seven people on Earth care about? That's a rhetorical question, by the way.

Anyhow, here's what I discovered. It appears that the Dreamcast Millennium Cup was a nationwide 5-a-side football tournament held across the UK in 1999 and 2000 which was sponsored by SEGA. It's odd to me that the competition wasn't called the SEGA Millennium Cup or something similar, but I suppose that's in keeping with the company's desire to remove almost any reference to the SEGA name from the Dreamcast's branding in Europe at that time. As mentioned, I had never heard of this tournament prior to seeing the eBay listing, but a cursory Google search (other search engines are available) resulted in a few Getty Images/Alamy results and a brief mention over at Sega Retro.

The Sega Retro entry reads: 

Dreamcast Millennium Cup

A British celebrity five-a-side tournament was sponsored by the Sega Dreamcast during 1999 and 2000. Thousands of teams took part, with the last 16 having their matches broadcast on Sky Sports in early 2000.

Heavily armed with that information, I looked at the metadata held for the few snaps which appear on the photo-hosting sites that still have images available and it appears that the vast majority of them were snapped on Sunday 13 August 2000 by a photographer named Tom Hevezi. Now, looking for information on Tom Hevezi will show that he was a sports photographer who covered some major sporting events back in that time period, most notably several FA Cup Final games, along with many Premier League matches. So far, so good. 

The curious thing about the photos of the Dreamcast Millennium Cup though, is that there are no images of the actual games being played, only shots of some of the celebrities who took part. These include such titans as members of 2000s pop group 911 (one of them wearing the very shirt listed), Quadrophenia star Phil Daniels, Lily Allen's dad and vindaloo worrier Keith Allen, TV presenters Angus Deayton and Bradley Walsh and even the international heart throb and superstar Dean 'Wellard' Gaffney. Oh, and Borat's ex Isla Fisher was there too. Disclaimer: other than Isla Fisher, I'm aware that many of our international readers will have no fucking idea who any of those late '90s and early 2000s British 'stars' are/were, but trust me. They were well known...ish.

The Dreamcast Games We Want Back Online the Most

In the late 1990s, with the bitter taste of the Saturn's commercial flop lingering in their mouth, and the looming presence of a gargantuan new competitor on the scene, the folks at Sega rallied round the idea that they could revive their financial fortunes by getting a new home console onto the market. In that moment, high-stakes decisions needed to be made about the characteristics that would define what came to be known as the Dreamcast. What would the technical architecture of the hardware be? How would developers be brought on board? What direction would the branding take? How comically loud could the operation of the disc drive possibly be?

One concept that Sega firmly hung their hat on was online gameplay. The Dreamcast was to be the first home console to be online out of the box, a distinction which Sega hoped would have punters flooding forth with a much-needed cash injection into the company's coffers. Online gameplay was a central pillar of the Dreamcast brand, featuring front and centre in the console's marketing campaigns. In the States, Sega called on nu-metal titan Fred Durst to push SegaNet. Here in Europe, a range of tongue-in-cheek adverts were published that played to nationalistic jockeying (think harmless English-French banter, rather than the disintegration of Yugoslavia). Japan didn't miss the memo either, although a big chunk of their marketing eschewed the macho competitive aspect in favour of pushing the Dreamcast's internet capabilities to a female demographic. 

A selection of advertising materials focusing on the Dreamcast's online functionalities,
from left to right: USA, France, Japan.

Of course, during it's official lifetime, the Dreamcast never got close to fulfilling the upper limit of its "up to 6 billion players" tagline. However, Sega did erect a superb online architecture that allowed hundreds of thousands to experience online competitive and cooperative gameplay for the first time. Compared to the lifespan of the official servers of some contemporary games, many titles in the Dreamcast's online library had a damn good innings too. The official PAL and Japanese servers for the OG grandaddy of online RPGs, Phantasy Star Online, were maintained well into 2007, with hundreds of players logging on to say emotional goodbyes in the final couple of days (I'm not crying, you're crying). Others lasted even longer. The official servers for Starlancer, hosted by GameSpy, held on all the way to 2014, although we cannot be sure whether that was a deliberate stay of execution or some admins simply forgetting that the things still existed.

Source for dates: Online Consoles (dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com); DreamCast Online Gaming (dcog.netfirms.com, available via Wayback Machine); dreamcastlive.net; Sega press releases; sleuthing around old forums; and a smidge of informed guesswork.

However, regardless of the staying power of some, eventually every single online Dreamcast game had its official servers switched off. Luckily for us though, the scene has persistently had a cohort of skilled and generous technicians working in the shadows to revive these online functions through unofficial measures (shout out to the likes of bluecrab, Flyinghead, ioncannon, petter3k, and Shuouma). More recently, they have even been bolstered by developers bringing brand new titles online, such as the indie smash-hit Driving Strikers, or freely distributed homebrew projects like ClassiCube, NuQuake and even Counter Strike. 

'There's an interesting story behind this Dreamcast game. In 1999 I remember it was. I got up in the morning and made myself a piece of toast. I set the toaster to three - medium brown...'

Alas, despite all this wizardry, there are still 64 games with online functions which have not been used since the day their official servers closed, 55 of which had fully fledged online multiplayer modes. Some of these titles, such as Unreal Tournament, are highly recognised and the status of their online multiplayer modes are asked after time and time again. Yet, I would contend that there are others which are actually worthy of more attention, and that is exactly what I hope to achieve with this article. So, with the customary rambling introduction over, let's get into it. Here are the Dreamcast games whose online revival I am anticipating the most...

Hands On with the Retro Fighters D6 Wireless Dreamcast Fighting Game Pad

The Sega Dreamcast's library is home to a lot of exceptional games, but one of its biggest strengths is undoubtedly fighters. Such standouts as Power Stone, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Soulcalibur immediately spring to mind. While my technical ability with most fighters is probably akin to that of a caveman banging a rock against the ground, I do really enjoy the Dreamcast's celebrated library of fighting titles.

While the Dreamcast's predecessor, the Saturn, came packaged with a stock pad that many consider to be one of the finest entry level controllers for fighting games, the Dreamcast's standard controller pales in comparison, with most complaints being levelled at its D-Pad. This issue resulted in many picking up Sega's excellent Dreamcast arcade stick back in the day. Play styles differ, however, and those who wanted something that they could grip with both hands sought out the ASCII Pad FT. This lovely controller is probably the closest any officially licensed controller got to mimicking a Saturn controller, and it even came with built-in rumble. Build-wise, it was a slightly chunkier recreation of what the Saturn controller originally offered, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It does get deducted points for having no shoulder buttons, however.

But now, in 2025, controller manufacturer Retro Fighters have dropped their latest take on a Dreamcast fight pad, the D6, and it's looking very Saturn pad-shaped! In fact, it clearly takes cues from both the Saturn pad and the ASCII Pad FT, looking like an amalgamation of the too. It even features the exact same circular convex D-Pad.

While some Dreamcast fighting game aficionados have praised Retro Fighters' StrikerDC Wireless controller, it was originally designed to be more of a good all-rounder, whereas the D6 aims to satiate fans of that genre specifically. This controller is available in both black and white, and is compatible with the Dreamcast, Switch and PC. It went up for pre-order in September of last year for a price of $49.99 (about £38). Retro Fighters were kind enough to send us one to review.

Top: StrikerDC Wireless
Bottom: The D6

If you're unfamiliar with Retro Fighters' previous Dreamcast outing, it achieved its wireless functionality with a receiver that connects into the controller port, and the D6 does exactly the same. This does mean that the only option for Dreamcast with the D6 is wireless, although the controller can function wired with Switch and PC by using the supplied USB to USB-C cable.

As the StrikerDC Wireless and D6 controllers don't have VMU slots on them, this receiver is also where you put your VMU. The D6 receiver has additional compatibility with the 4x memory Card, and the upcoming VMU Pro by 8BitMods. It does not currently work with the VM2.

While Sega didn't originally intend for us to squint across the room at our VMU screens, this is the method that companies like Retro Fighters, along with Retro-Bit, have opted to go for to keep their price points down. It also removes the risk of wireless connections being interrupted, which can lead to save data on VMUs being corrupted.

This technical hurdle has been overcome by Chris Diaoglou with his DreamConn and upcoming DreamConn S, but those controllers are —understandably— much higher in price.

Upon plugging the receiver into your Dreamcast, you need to press the triangle button on it, along with the pairing button on the top of the D6 to get the two to pair. While this seems like a relatively simple process, it did take me a few attempts before I could get them to sync together. Despite this quibble, now I've got the controller paired, simply pressing the button on the top of the controller will connect it to the receiver instantly whenever its plugged in.

Doom 64 for Dreamcast: Impressions and Developer Interview

See, before I got my Dreamcast in November 1999 I owned a Nintendo 64. I couldn't get a Dreamcast at launch because my dear old mother (God rest her soul) forbade me from owning more than one console at a time. Consoles, she wagered (and therefore games of all types) led to a malady known simply as "brain rot." Her words, not mine. 

Regardless, I tell you this to set the scene of my pre-Dreamcast gaming habits. I wasn't what you'd call a hardcore Nintendo fan, you understand - the Nintendo 64 was actually the first Nintendo system I had owned at that point, having been a devout Saturn apologist immediatley prior and before that one of the 7 people in the UK who owned an Atari Jaguar (Jag reference: check). No, I got a Nintendo 64 because I simply had to have 'the fastest, most powerful games console on Earth,' which was ironic, seeing as that's how Nintendo's platform was officially marketed at one point.

Oooh...a Sonic the Fighters preview? Sold!

In the very early days of the Nintendo 64's existence, it was known as the Ultra 64, which apart from being possibly the sexiest moniker ever to grace a games console, also invited many a developer to prefix their upcoming titles with the word 'ultra.' With this in mind, one of the games that piqued my interest very early on was Ultra Doom. 

By the time the magazines were teasing Ultra Doom, I had already played the original Doom on the PC (a slightly decrepit 386 that even at the time was wheezingly obsolete, what with its Windows 3.1 operating system and lack of CD-Rom drive), and had then sampled Doom's delights/horrors on the Atari Jaguar and the Sega Saturn respectively. But Ultra Doom - which was later renamed Doom 64 - now...that held a certain fascination and morbid curiosity. It was Doom, but not as we knew it. Side note: I was also very much looking forward to the Ultra 64 port of Red Baron, but we'll probably never know what happened to that particular footnote of gaming history. Moving on...

Give GT Interactive a ring on that number bottom left. I dare you.

From the first time I saw those pink plasticine (clay) demons, foreboding sky boxes and brand new levels reproduced in tiny low resolution magazine preview shots, I knew I would one day play Doom 64. Quite simply, it was my destiny. Lo and behold, the prophecy was eventually fulfilled and Doom 64 was a constant inhabitant of my Nintendo 64's cartridge slot once I managed to get hold of a copy in late 1997 or early 1998. I can't quite remember exactly when I got Doom 64 because it was 27-odd years ago...and now I feel the crushing weight of middle age gripping my soul. Thanks for that.

Still banging on about Turok nine months later. Boring!

What I do remember though, is the magazine reviews. The journos of the era, I seem to recall, while not crushingly negative, weren't exactly enamoured with Doom 64: some reviews slagged off the sprite based visuals, puzzle design and complete lack of multiplayer options. Turok Dinosaur Hunter had also been out for a while by the time Doom 64 released, and many reviews were lukewarm on Midway and GT Interactive's Doom update for its reliance on 'old fashioned' visuals and gameplay tropes. 

That didn't bother me, though - I thought Doom 64 was excellent and I can clearly remember being awestruck the first time I saw that darkened corridor in the second level where the neon arrows are painted on the floor and ceiling. It was just mesmerising and fresh to me, especially having played other versions of 'normal' Doom to death. I should also mention at this point that I had also played the PlayStation port of Doom on a friend's console and I loved the colourful lighting...but, y'know, I didn't have a PlayStation. It is what it is.

It's about to kick off. Nice candles though.

By now, you're probably wondering what any of this tripe has got to do with the Dreamcast, and I think you'd be well within your rights to demand a refund of your internet data considering you came here to read about Dreamcast stuff. But here's the bait and switch: Doom 64 is now available on the Dreamcast...and it's possibly the best way to play 1997's Doomiest release in the present year...

An Interview with Tetsu "Tez" Okano - the Mastermind behind Cult Dreamcast RPG Segagaga

There isn't a day that goes by in the Sega Dreamcast community where someone doesn't ask when an English fan translation of Hitmaker's 2001 Japan-exclusive Segagaga —the RPG simulation title where you run Sega— is releasing. Since the mid-2000s, a handful of translation projects have been announced, only to inevitably fizzle out, leading some to go as far as to brand the game as "cursed" (see also: “the final boss” and “the Half-Life 3” of Dreamcast translations). But what many may not realise is that rounding up the perfect group of persevering translators to see a translation through to fruition is the least of Segagaga's problems. The biggest hurdle facing any translation patching attempt is actually the way the game was originally programmed to draw text from the Dreamcast's BIOS, as opposed to using a font sheet, like many (successfully translated!) Dreamcast games do. While the core of this issue has been solved by some exceptionally talented hackers in the Dreamcast fan community, there is still much to be worked on.

Photo of the regular Segagaga release. Photo: doceggfan.

But it's only natural that out of all the games, an English translation of Segagaga would be the most sought after by fans of Sega and the Dreamcast alike. Segagaga satirises Sega itself, providing an entertaining tribute to its diverse and beloved back catalogue of franchises and characters, while also not pulling any punches in its portrayal of the then-struggling corporation's various business missteps. Some great tributes have followed since, such as the animated series Sega Hard Girls, and ensemble games like All-Stars Racing Transformed. However, through its brutal honesty and self-awareness, it is Segagaga which stands out the most, not only as a fitting love letter to Sega, but also as a prime example of the rebellious nature the corporation was known for during its time as a console manufacturer.

When it came to masterminding Segagaga, there was truly only one man for the job. Step up Tetsu Okano, aka Tez Okano, aka "Zolger Tetsu", aka "Ichizou Zoruge", aka the director of the best Astro Boy game. Known for his unconventional approach to everything from video games to manga, Okano-san truly took a risk when he set out to create a game that poked fun at the very company he worked for, and we are elated to reveal that we recently got the chance to talk to him all about his career, and of course, Segagaga.

Screenshot of Segagaga. Credit: CDRomance.

Translator extraordinaire Duralumin —who previously assisted with our Kenji Tosaki interview— returns once more to translate Okano-san's answers from Japanese. Laurence Goodchild also deserves a shout out for assisting with the questions and supplying the lovely photos of the Segagaga launch event, scanned from issue 16 of Italian Dreamcast magazine Dreamcast Arena.

But this wouldn't be an interview with Tez Okano if it didn't diverge from the traditional format in some way! When asking Okano-san about his earliest memories of video games, his reply was... a comic? Well, in case you didn't know, in Japan, Okano-san published an autobiographical manga called "8-Bit Chronicles" which covers his formative years as a child discovering the burgeoning world of video games. He supplied us with the first two chapters in Japanese, and Duralumin —who translates manga professionally— proceeded to translate them into English. We have uploaded them to a Google Drive folder so you can read them, which is something I implore you do. The comic is not only an awesome homage to the golden age of video games, but also very amusing.

A small preview of the first page of 8-Bit Chronicles, as translated by Duralumin.

Finally, Okano-san wanted us to stress to you, our audience, that the answers you see below from him are his recollections of events that happened over two decades ago. He wanted to make sure that we clarify that he is not speaking officially on Sega's behalf, just recounting his own memories of the time. With that disclaimer out of the way — the interview!

Photo of Tez Okano. Credit: Sega Retro.

DCJY: Thank you for talking with us, Okano-san! We thought it was only right to start at the beginning, so what are your earliest memories of video games?

Tez Okano: When this is published, I hope you'll share the first chapter of my manga, 8-Bit Chronicles. It covers Space Invaders, Galaxian... I could talk about those games all day! But this is probably the easiest way to understand the story of why I, as well as many other Japanese kids in the late '70s, fell in love with video games.

What led you into a career in the games industry, and how did you eventually join Sega?

When I was still in my college years, I made my debut as a manga artist through Kodansha. However, working as a manga artist, you don't really have any security once your series is over, so I found myself enticed by the gleam of the rising star that was the gaming industry. And of course, Sega at the time was still young, and seeking unconventional talent.

"Morning" magazine, where Tez Okano's early manga work was published. His name can be seen at the top of the woman's right shoulder.

So let's get into Segagaga. It has been documented that you developed the game in secret for two years before presenting it to Sega. What was your reasoning for keeping it a secret?

Many places have a particular culture around satire, parody, and irony, Japan included. However —I understand you’re from England— irony is much less familiar to us in Japan than it is in the UK. And while Sega was a pretty big umbrella, it had no shortage of people who would take issue with self-deprecating parody. You'll also notice there's never been any effort to make, say, a Namcococo or Nintendododo, for example, and that should tell you something. That being said, Sega has always prided itself on doing the crazy stuff that no one else could pull off, and the Segagaga project explored that philosophy to the limit. But, it just wasn't the kind of thing that you wanted to make a show of around the company, and invite all that scrutiny and risk the project's survival.

Grand Theft Auto 3 for the Dreamcast - DCA3 Alpha Version Now Available

Japanese cover art mock-up courtesy of Dreamcast-Talk user k-do.

Most of you will likely know that a port of Grand Theft Auto III for the Sega Dreamcast has been in the works for some months now. Indeed, those outside the niche Dreamcast scene may have even heard the news given that the project gained coverage across the broader gaming press earlier this year, attracting everything from wide-eyed amazement through to cynical befuddlement. Back then, spectating the porting work was possible because the project was out in the open, with every ounce of progress laid bare for the public to see in real time.

In recent weeks though, this dynamic was lost as those at the heart of the project shifted to working in a behind-the-scenes fashion - most likely to reduce the risk of Rockstar putting the kibosh on the project before it had a chance to bear fruit. As such, we went from hearing near-daily updates, to a radio silence that carried the potential to feed cynical thoughts: where's my freaking GTA 3 already? What are those lazy no-good schlubs doing? Maybe a port wasn't feasible all along! and so on, and so forth. Fortunately though, even with the absence of a cheerleading public, it seems that the rapid pace of development didn't slow down one iota, as today the alpha version of DCA3 (top marks for this pun lads) has been released.

What does it stand for though? Can you do better than 'divine car abduction III'? Let's hear your suggestions in the comments please.

What does this mean exactly? Well, it means that, with a little jiggery pokery, you can compile a version of GTA 3 that will run on your Dreamcast. Given that it is an alpha version, bugs and occasional crashes are to be expected. Nevertheless, many testers have reported running the game for extended periods without issue, and, in my experience, the alpha version looks gorgeous and runs far better than I had expected it might. The controls map quite naturally on to the Dreamcast's regular controller (for the most part), and, perhaps most importantly, those who wish to progress with Claude through the game's infamous gangland story are be able to save progress to a VMU (although using one which is otherwise empty is recommended).

A key reason that you will need to compile your own alpha version, rather than simply download a ready-to-go .CDI or .GDI, is that players are expected to have their own legitimate version of the game. Morals and ethics aside, this is obviously an absolutely essential step to ensure the preservation of the porting project - any moves that have even the slightest whiff of piracy risk incurring the wrath of some extremely well resourced legal teams.

A sight to behold. Not the undecorated walls... GTA 3 on the Dreamcast!

Fortunately, compiling instructions are available. So, as long as you are capable of following these, have bought a copy of GTA 3 for PC (Rockstar offer a digital version with Vice City and San Andreas for a reasonable price), and have a Dreamcast that can play burned discs or has an optical drive emulator installed, then you should be good to go.

It would be wrong to drop this piece of news and not say something about the significance of the release. Really, it's hard to overstate what a monumental achievement the port is. In less than a year, an international crew of enthusiastic developers ('The Gang'), led by the mastermind skmp, have applied their skills to voluntarily deliver one of the defining games of the sixth console generation to the Dreamcast - a game that had begun development on Sega's swansong console, but instead ended up fuelling the stratospheric success of the arch-rival PlayStation 2, shifting 11 million copies for that console alone. 

In the intervening years the possibility of GTA 3 running on the DC has cropped up again and again as a topic of conversation in the scene, whether that be the technical flavour of 'could it be done?' or the alternative history variant of 'what if it had been?' The latter conversation may still plod on forever more, but the former is now totally dead and buried. Evidently, with the right skills and commitment, use of the free development library KallistiOS, and access to reverse-engineered code, it has now been definitively proven that the Dreamcast is more than capable of running this game.

Image created by Brazilian Dreamcast supremo NaiSan.

Of course, what is on offer right now is only an alpha version, but given the team's track record, it seems highly likely that the project will progress on to further iterations that buff out the rough edges. For now, all that's left to do is hear a few words from 'The Gang' themselves...

Merry 'Castmas! - The Festive Games of the Sega Dreamcast

This time last year, I had almost no time to enjoy the holiday festivities. I was unable to put up a tree or lights, let alone restore holiday cheer to Twin Seeds City. Rather, we were swamped with uprooting our lives, dog, and 15 years’ worth of belongings as we prepared to move across the Atlantic. It made for a hellishly stressful shitmas.

This year is the opposite, mercifully. So far I’ve enjoyed relaxing and rekindling the holiday spirit. I’ve indulged in some longstanding traditions, while adopting several new ones from this side of the pond. The Christmas markets, Sunday roasts, and excessive pints at my locals have helped make this season all the merrier. Of course, I’ve also been playing a bunch of Dreamcast games to help celebrate the season.

Sega’s final console imparted us with a multitude of titles that could be considered festive in one sense or another. Of course, these games will resonate with different folks in different ways. Some are dusted in snowscapes, some are lit with Christmas decor, and some just have festive vibes. Whichever the case, the following games have helped restore my holiday spirit in their own odd and unique ways…

Blue Stinger 

I’ve spilled plenty of ink championing Blue Stinger as a highlight of the Dreamcast’s festive offerings, and its library in general. We’ve also rambled about the game in several of our podcast episodes by this point. In fact, you can listen to our latest DreamPod dedicated solely to Shinya Nishigaki and Climax Graphics’ holiday classic.

Ditching any semblance of survival horror, Blue Stinger teeters a balance of action/beat ‘em up, B-movie camp, and festive vibrancy. Yet that understates how hard it goes on all counts.

Whether you crave gory fisticuffs or holiday cheer, Blue Stinger indulges in both and spares us from all nuance. If you want to obliterate Dinosaur Island’s mutant folk, its vending machines offer a buffet of shotguns, stun rods, rocket launchers, and lightsabers for your destructive delight. And if you want Christmas cheer, it will bury you in an avalanche of neon snowman, chipper earworms, and festive/bizarre Pen Pen cameos. 

Blue Stinger embodies holiday excess and it will charm the shit out of you if you let it.

Christmas moral: We can capture the magic of Christmas with just a little brute force...and tequila.

Beverage pairing: Mistletoe Margaritas

Dessert pairing: Hassy pudding

Song pairing: My friend Angela’s metal karaoke rendition of “Feliz Navidad” followed by this song on loop for 10 hours

Cool Boarders Burrrn! (NTSC-J) / Snow Surfers (PAL) / Rippin’ Riders (NTSC-U)

As a game without a consistent title between regions (for legal reasons), I at least appreciate their alliteration.

Frankly, I’ve always wished I enjoyed UEP System’s Dreamcast snowboarding game more than I traditionally have. I still return to it every couple years thinking that maybe it will finally click. It never fully does but we’ll muddle through somehow.

Perhaps my expectations were overblown by my love for other turn-of-the-millennium snowboarding games. I always balked at Snow Surfers’ stifling rigidity. It offers limited potential for exploration and improvisation, which contrasts unfavorably with the likes of SSX, Amped, and even Steep Slope Sliders. But in its own charming way, that also makes Rippin’ Surfers a unique kind of grind. Countdown timers are unforgiving and tricks are limited to specific launch points (as with other Cool Boarders games). There are just a few viable approaches to each course, which I was compelled to practice ad nauseam to improve my best scores and inch towards more optimal runs.

Unmoored from the expectations of its contemporaries, I found a merry little game in Burrrn Riders. With a little persistence, carving the slopes feels surprisingly serene, and is further bolstered by the chill beats and nifty set pieces. It’s not an expansive game but its simplicity makes it feel oddly cozy.

Christmas moral: Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy games for what they are.

Beverage pairing: Jingle Juice with Mountain Dew

Dessert pairing: Christmas crumble or something with alliteration

Song pairing: “Merry Muthafuckin’ Christmas” by Eazy-E

Shenmue

AM2’s classic Santa stalking simulator needs no introduction here. I’ll just say that — with Shenmue’s dynamic weather system — I had to load through all my Xbox saves, all my PS5 saves, and a dozen VMUs before I finally found a save state where it was actually snowing in Dobuita. After that, I had a jolly time crunching through the snow and following Santa around town as he peddled local boozers to underage teenagers before imbibing at them himself. We couldn’t stay out too late, though. Ryo still had to show up for his forklift job on Christmas Day. 

On a side note, Mark's mandatory, pre-shift forklift races do not pay overtime and that’s fucking bullshit.

Christmas moral: Unionize.

Beverage pairing: Milk

Dessert pairing: Nothing. Ryo doesn’t eat food in Shenmue 1 because he is a ryobot

Song pairing: “Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)” by Harvey Danger

The Time a Bus Company tried to get Jet Set Radio Banned in the United Kingdom

While modern Sega tends to stick to the straight and narrow (i.e. reboot Sonic every other year, say they'll give us a new Crazy Taxi but only if it's some live service guff), they've certainly had some contentious moments throughout their history. At this point we've all heard about the United States Senate hearings concerning Night Trap. Throw a stone at YouTube and it's bound to land on a video covering the topic for the umpteenth time, not to mention countless deep dives into the Japanese multinational's various crappy business decisions. If you want to talk real controversial Sega history, how about the time they threatened a poor, innocent Dreamcast fansite with legal action? We're not still bitter or anything...

During the Dreamcast era, Sega found themselves in the sights of the city of Milwaukee's Common Council, who petitioned them to cancel the release of Smilebit's Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio, as it was known there in the US). The council claimed that the game would glamorise the act of graffiti tagging, with the fear being that it would encourage the young bucks of Milwaukee (geddit?) to transfer their petty vandalism from the virtual walls of Tokyo-To to the streets of Milwaukee itself. Ultimately, the game wasn't cancelled, but Tom's article on the whole saga is definitely worth a read.

The youths are going to graffiti your gran!

For a long time, we here at the Junkyard thought that was the extent of the concern surrounding Jet Set Radio's apparent mission to turn the youth of 2000 into mindless paint-spraying zombies. This was until Antosk8er in our Discord shared something very interesting that we'd never seen before. Turns out there were some powers that be attempting to get Jet Set Radio withdrawn from sale here in the United Kingdom too...

What Antosk8er found was a PDF of a report dated May 2002 from the London Assembly Graffiti Investigative Committee titled "Graffiti in London". The committee in question, which was comprised of three politicians - each from one of the three main political parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats) - was established in 2001 with the goal to “investigate graffiti across London, examining examples of best practice in its prevention and removal".

To be fair, those tags are pretty shit.

While I can definitely appreciate the artistry behind graffiti (no, this does not confirm that I am in fact Banksy), I can sympathise with the reasoning behind the establishment of this committee. In the foreword of the report, a 2001 survey is cited, which said that 77% of Londoners listed graffiti as “a quality of life concern". The report also mentions that "local authorities, transport organisations, businesses and private individuals [were] spending millions of pounds each year trying to prevent and remove it." But who needs money when you've got graffiti soul?

The report also painted a dreary picture of the effect graffiti was having on Londoners. "Graffiti has a negative effect on the lives of the thousands of Londoners who travel in vandalised, unpleasant buses and trains, and live in areas blighted by graffiti." And this, my sweet soul brothers, is where Jet Set Radio came into the picture.