Competition: Win a Sealed Copy of Shenmue!

We've teamed up with online store Retroplayers and Shenmue super site TeamYu (or rather, they've teamed up with us...or something) to offer you - yes you - the opportunity to win a brand new and sealed copy of PAL Shenmue. This is totally unopened so if you win, the first greasy finger prints that will ever be laid on that glorious sparkling GD-Rom will be yours!

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is go to the official entry page here and enter the competition. That's it! No questions, no tests, no 'tell us your favourite Dreamcast moment' nonsense. Just go to Retroplayers and enter for a chance to win this awesome prize. And while you're at it, you could also go and check out the Retroplayers store, where (and I'm not just saying this) you'll find a ton of really well priced retro gaming deals. I'm probably going to get a Neo Geo Pocket Colour next week from them, so don't go and buy them all. Cheers.

The Dreamcast Junkyard - Now on Ubuntu Phones and Tablets

Yep, that's right. I'm one of those annoying bores who got themselves a new phone - a Meizu Pro 5 - and can't stop telling people how awesome it is. And I'm also doubly annoying because I opted for one of the very few commercially available Ubuntu phones, so I can look down my nose and sneer at all you sheeple trapped in your walled iOS and android gardens... ahem.

Keep on drinking that GoogApple duopoly Kool-Aid sheeple - I'll just sit quietly over here with my smartphone that has a completely unnecessary but super cool command line terminal.
That's right: Terminal. On a smartphone. 

Hidden Palace Releases Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe

Well this is pretty incredible news. Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future is widely known to have been given the go ahead for the sequel treatment, and until now the only real evidence of this has been some YouTube footage of the game running on a dev kit. Thanks to Hidden Palace though, you can now download and play Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe yourself. On a retail Dreamcast. This is not a drill. Repeat, not a drill.

The game is in no way complete, features no sound and has a debugger menu enabled by default, but here's a quick run down of the features:

• This game was cancelled around the time Sega went third party
• Possibly the last build created
• Contains no music or sound
• Has an active debugger enabled
• An anonymous contributor has made a self-boot CDI so that the game can be burned and played on a retail Dreamcast.

Thanks to drx of Hidden Palace and Nik Thorpe of Retro Gamer Magazine for the info. If you're going to steal this story for your own site at least give those guys credit if you aren't going to credit us. Go here and download the self-boot CDI right now. Right fucking now. Amazing.

A Quick Look At Looney Tunes Space Race

When it comes to cartoons, I’d choose Warner Bros’ Looney Tunes over their Disney counterparts any day of the week. The characters and the humour just appeal to me in a much broader sense than anything old Walt could conjure up. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the talent and the genius of Walt Disney and the countless classic cartoons and world famous characters the studio has given to the world (and of course, mainstream animation in the first place); but the slightly more adult-themed humour and overtly violent nature of the Warner Bros stable strikes more of a chord with me.

Hello? Is this thing on? Reminds me of the average DreamPod recording session...

That said, I don’t consider all of the Looney Tunes to be palatable by default. For instance, I can’t stand the Sylvester and Tweety Pie stuff (although that’s more down to the latter character than the former), and Bugs Bunny’s wisecracking does my head in; but for the most part Warner’s cartoons just hit the right balance of ‘entertainment for the kids’ and ‘there’s something here for the adults too.’ For a prime example of this, see the Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian cartoons. In more recent times though, stuff like Animaniacs, Tiny Toons and (shudder) Space Jam have also become synonymous with Warner Bros, but in 2000 the original gang got back together and hit the Dreamcast in pretty spectacular fashion with Looney Tunes Space Race.

Composer Spotlight: Philippe Vachey

When writing about video game music, one should start with beloved and favorite games. I'd previously looked at the music of Sonic Adventure, so for my first 'composer spotlight' article, why not look at my second favorite game on the system?

Toy Commander is a fun romp through a child's house and imagination. How do the tunes stack up? Developed by No Cliché, Toy Commander's music was composed by Philippe Vachey.

Compared to other composers and bands I've seen, Vachey's discography is fairly short; however it does include the famous survival horror title Alone in the Dark. Other games he's scored are Little Big Adventure and its sequel, a Cthulhu game, and Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals. With a few exceptions, most of Vachey's work has been for adventure games.

Probably not a Dreamcast keyboard

DCJAM 2016: Dreamcast Homebrew Game Jam Starts September 2016

Are you a homebrew developer? Got an idea for a new Dreamcast game? Then this could be for you. Starting in September 2016 and running until January 2017, DCJAM 2016 is aiming to kick start (excuse the pun) the creative juices flowing through the dreamcast homebrew scene in an attempt to get more bedroom coders putting their ideas into action to create a whole new Dreamcast game jam spread across a period of several months. For those who aren't familiar, a game jam is generally a brainstorming and programming session where coders and designers can collaborate to create new and original software for whatever format the game jam is aimed at...and as you've already read, DCJAM 2016 is aimed squarely at those who may want to have a go at putting a game out on Sega's final system.

"Although there have been games released by independent developers on a commercial scale, there hasn't really been that large of a homebrew presence as there was before 2010. In the hopes of getting people interested, I thought that it would be wise to start a Dreamcast Game Jam. The Dreamcast is a great system to develop for, and it's relatively cheap to purchase.

The competition will run from September 09, 2016 to January 9th, 2017. Voting will last between the 9th and the 16th of January 2017. After the games are voted on, a compilation disk(s) will be created so that we have a nice collection of homebrew to play with."

- DCJAM 2016

We've seen some stunning homebrew titles hit the Dreamcast over the years and the community's appetite for new software is as voracious as ever; so if you think you're up to the challenge, why not get involved in this exciting jam session?

Check out the rules and join the jam by visiting the DCJAM 2016 site here.

The Haunting D2 Music Box

D2 is a game that famously never received a PAL release, and the Japanese and NTSC-U versions are highly sought after and represent one of the late developer Kenji Eno's finest moments. While it's true Warp also went on to develop another Dreamcast game in Real Sound: Winds of Regret, the Japanese outfit never really revisited the Dreamcast - much to the disappointment of many.

Now, while randomly wandering the annals of YouTube the other day though, I stumbled upon a fascinating video from fellow 'tuber FatalistDC that shows off a rather brilliant yet lesser-known piece of Dreamcast merchandise: a wind up music box that plays the haunting theme tune from D2:

We've looked at myriad examples of Dreamcast-related merchandise in the last couple of years, but I'd never seen (or heard of) this music box prior to a few days ago. To this end, I contacted FatalistDC and asked about the history of the item and he was able to supply the following:

"I got it years ago, searching Yahoo Japan Auctions for items related to D, D2 and Enemy Zero. I found this music box and some D2 mangas too. I quickly bid on them using Shopping Mall Japan. I don't have more info about the item itself or why a D2 music box was released or if there are any more very rare items of D2 memorabilia."

- Fatalist DC

Thanks to FatalistDC for allowing me to share his video here - check out his YouTube channel for Dreamcast centric videos. He did also point me to this article from Gamesniped that details a pretty spectacular Enemy Zero collector's edition, but alas had no more info on the D2 music box. Do you know any more about it or have any similarly lesser known Dreamcast-related collectables? Let us know in the comments or in the Facebook group!

Sega Katana & Dreamcast Marketing Videos Discovered

Sega recently hit the headlines when an internal video was discovered that showed what it was like to be a tester during the 1990s. This is Sega Test wasn't really intended for public consumption, but it gave us a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the company when it was still a force to be reckoned with. Another video has now been discovered, and while it's not really in the same vein as the one detailed above, it does give us a very early taste of what was to come from the Dreamcast.

As described by Assembler Games forum member Coolmod, this Katana footage was discovered when he was given a bunch of VHS tapes. Upon viewing the tapes to digitise them, they yielded some pretty amazing tech demos and marketing material from the dawn of the Dreamcast era.

The most interesting footage comes from the tape labelled 'Sega Katana Demo TRT: 3:25 4/24/98':

This now-digitised footage shows some concepts for what looks like a Scud Race-esque racing game engine, and several other tech demos which could possibly have gone on to be the inspiration for titles such as Virtual On and Sea Man. Another video detailed at the forum here also shows a collection of adverts and news spots from US television. Why these were archived as 'internal' is a bit of a mystery as these news shows were clearly broadcast, but these discoveries show there's still more to be found when it comes to the Dreamcast.

Thanks to Coolmod for allowing us to share this video.

A Quick Look at Dolphin Blue

Just like our previous article exploring the history of the Sega Driving Simulator, this began as a sub-section of the upcoming part 4 in our 'Expanding the Dreamcast Collection' series regarding the next in the line of arcade systems to share similar hardware to the Dreamcast; the Atomiswave system. People often ask me…wait - who am kidding…let me start again. In my imagination, people often ask me to name the 'exclusive killer app' for each of the systems in the Dreamcast family and I usually struggle, but with Atomiswave, an answer is easy to produce; not only is this the best Atomiswave game, but this could well very be the single best exclusive across the entire Dreamcast family of arcade hardware. Read on to find out more.

I’m a big fan of Metal Slug but like many of you out there, I found the series got a wee bit stale after the third game. Not to say that subsequent games were bad or anything, just that…well, I couldn’t shake the feeling of déjà vu, and have always preferred the purity of the original game without all the zombies, mummies, aliens and transformation nonsense. Dolphin Blue fills the void left in the wake of the Metal Slug series’ change in direction, and then some.

Even before merging with Sega, Sammy had a close relationship with Sega.
Atomiswave and the Guilty Gear series are heavily associated with both companies. 

The game was one of the last Sammy developed before the merger with Sega in 2004. Despite this, it feels incredibly Sega-like for lack of a better term; blue skies, upbeat catchy tunes, cute spunky characters with plenty of 'tude and even an appearance from Sega’s very own Ecco the Dolphin…Ok, well that last part I may have just pulled out of my arse, but many of the gameplay mechanics do revolve around a certain bad ass cetacean chum.

A Different Type of Football: NFL on Dreamcast

With the Euros just around the corner (for our American readers, that refers to a soccer competition, not piles of European cash...although both definitions have some validity), and with our finger on the pulse of the public as always at the Junkyard, what better time to look at one of the worlds most beloved sporting activities than now?

Actually though, the Dreamcast's 'round ball' football output is particularly laughable. I mean, there are only so many articles you can read which basically state they're all crap, with the familiar "oh why couldn't we be blessed with a PES or FIFA?" thread running through them. Instead, allow me to take you on a tour of the very best examples of a sport played in one country, whose very name makes no sense to those raised passing a ball around a muddy field at school lunchtime. Allow me to present, on the eve of the European Soccer Championships 2016...The Dreamcast Junkyard's ultimate guide to American hand egg, American carry-the-rugby-ball American football!

The England defence was no match for the Italian striker...

Unlike many of my compatriots, I do follow the noble sport of American football (henceforth to be referred to as 'football'), and when I'm not following my beloved New York Yankee Men or the fearsome Denver Buffalo Bill Packer Patriots, there's nothing I like more than to indulge in a bit of rugby-for-cowards in digital form (last joke, honestly). And my word - doesn't the Dreamcast have a solid line up of games representing the sport? A total of 8 titles replicate NFL on Sega's little-machine-that-could and whilst the quality varies, US gamers could at least take solace that none of them was quite as poor as 90 Minutes and it's butchering of our beloved Association Football code...right?