I'm Dreamcast Of A White Christmas...

Well it's that time of year again...

A time for trudging through rain soaked, piss stained, agraphobia inducing streets, full of angry shoppers.

A time for hearing the same old tired, shmaltzy tunes, cranked out on a loop, in every venue you have the misfortune to go.


A time for avoiding annoying relatives, and maxing out your over strained credit card on uneccessary presents, so that you can line the pockets of multi-national chain, stores offering poor quality goods. (PS3 anyone? Oh no I forgot... you can't get one yet can you?)

A time for stuffing yourself full of so much sugary, fat laden gack and booze, that a bout of projectile vomitting and soiling yourself, inevitably ensues. (Well it does for me anyway.)




For the good folks at Sega however, it's a time to rejoice. Apparently they love it. As long as they've been producing consoles, they've been producing seasonal games and themed packages for their lovely machines.
Indeed, since the clever inclusion of an internal clock and calendar into the lovely Saturn and Dreamcast respectively, games which transform into Christmassy themed packages when this special time of year rolls around...



Let's have a look at some shall we? Back in Megadrive/Genesis days there was the cutesy 'Daze Before Christmas'. A 2D platformer where you had to help a beseiged Santa make it through a variety of hazards to deliver presents on Christmas day...



The Saturn gave us one of the best games of all time with the Sonic Team opus Christmas Nights. This was a seasonal spin on the excellent Nights Into Dreams, a psychedelic, spaced out vision of a game, where heroes Elliot and Claris had to battle nightmarish creatures to defend the land of Dreamtopia.
Dreamcast owners eagerly anticipated Nights 2 for the best console ever, but it never appeared. Bah! Humbug!
But what of the Dreamcast? Every December the 25th unsuspecting gamers would see a magical change occur on certain games. They would literally all of a sudden, be adorned in bunting, tinsel, Christmas trees and seasonal costumes. I've endevered to get you screenshots for each of these games, but unfortunately I've only managed to get you some... Damn you Google Image... Damn you TO HELL!
"Where the fuck am I?"

Shenmue... Perhaps my favourite title ever, a sprawling epic RPG, drawing heavily on the passage of time as our young hero Ryo Hazuki walks, talks, fights and works his way throughout the days in a quest of honour to avenge his Father's death at the hands of the murderous Lan Di. Oh and feeds kittens...Shops... And ignores the advances of saucy looking, buxom, oriental beauties...
As Ryo enters the streets of Dobuita on Christmas day, who should he see but...
FATHER CHRISTMAS!! Whoop-de-fuckin'-do! Meddle with your Dreamcast's time/date system and you can see for yourself... 'Cos try as I might I just can't pluck an image off the net for you. Sorry.

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing on that most wonderful of days, threw up a festive treat for it's players.
This excellent cartoony arcade favourite suddenly saw Christmas trees spring up at the ringside... Ready 2 Rumble 2 took it a step further by providing seasonal outfits and a large snowman to fight. And as throughout the rest of the year, Michael Jackson could always turn up to 'give the kids one'. A present that is.... Honestly! See my frankly piss poor illustration of this phemomena, hijacked on my camera phone, from the wonderful Games TM magazine article on this very subject...



Survival horror RPG, Blue Stinger will also hold a special place in my heart. It was one of the first DC games I ever got really stuck into. I never completed it of course, I rarely do.
Hero Elliot got to battle a plethora of mutant man beasts in a super market complex verily bedecked in festive trimmings and featuring large billboards with Kris Kringle and other seasonal images. And he battled these multi-limbed nightmares to a soundscape of jingley Christmas music. Beautiful really... (Sniff!)



The wonderful Caution Seaman took the anniversary of the birth of Our Lord to another level.
Not only was there a Christmas edition of this most wonderful of games, but there was a beautiful see through red edition of the Dreamcast itself released. Take a look at these beautiful images... and by the way, if you ever see one of these babies available on eBay, snap it up. There were only 850 of these lovelies ever made...



Free stickers and gift tags came with the game to help you wrap your presents....

On Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, a quick visit to the Dream Arena on the Internet could allow you to dress up Sonic and his immediate environment. Our favourite Hedgehog and Sega mascot loves Christmas as much as the Japanese people that spawned him, despite him being erm.. a Hedgehog, and Japan being a nation of Shintoists. Go figure...













Now, you know I've taken to cheaply including images of my favourite eye candy in recent posts, and who am I to break this tradition?
However, this time it's one of the Dreamcast's own lovely ladies and a personal favourite of mine. Ulala! In a festive outfit! Crikey!



("No, Ivy off Soul Calibur, I haven't forgotten you, you're always number one imaginary lust object in my heart, even if it's wrong to fancy videogame characters...Nurse! Medication! It's happening again...")

By the way, I just found out that Christmas is the favourite time of year of devout Jehova's Witness, nipple flasher and person who featured Dreamcast clips in her video, Janet Jackson!!
Who'd a thunk it???


Good Night children and a Merry Christmas to you all, wherever you are...

Skate Or Die!

Having been blown away by the latest post from the Gagaman(n) about NEW Dreamcast seasonal stocking fillers, it is with a degree of shame that I revert to reporting on old stuff that's been around for ages. And yet some old chestnuts are worth checking out... and one such title is the amazing 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.'

(That's the real Tony, quuite a nice chap and family type really...)

Now this title has a particular resonance for me... For whilst I may now look like Fred Elliot... (from Northern English 'Kitchen Sink' Drama themed soap "Coronation Street" ... that's for our American cousins...)'



I was once a long haired thin framed skate fiend.


Sure I could never 'pop an ollie' or 'grind a rail' but I could skate with reasonable ability. My early skateboards looked a bit like this...

In fact, and this is no lie, my first skateboard was literally a coffin shaped plank of wood, with two rollerskates nailed to it. Now I know that that sounds to you young types, much like one of those 'old folks tales' of how 'We had it hard back in my day... You young'uns don't know your born...' etc. It is in fact TRUE!

Anyway I skated from the age of 10 to 21. In fact the only thing that stopped me was the fact that:
a.) I had become a father... and therfore presumed I needed to 'grow up a bit..'
PLUS
b.) A long haired hippy skateboarder, skating through my council estate in Levenshulme, Manchester, would have been a target for ridicule, stone throwing and window smashing from sinister local skinheads, white trash youths wearing hoodies, ill-fitting baseball caps and Nike Shocks... depressing really...


So instead, I discovered the sofa, video games and beer (HURRAH!) and they've been my friends ever since.
Now video games are great! Anyone reading this post will know this. One of the reasons for this phenomena, is that if the game is sufficiently good, you will be absorbed into it.
It will take you away from the drudgery of your normal existence, and you will 'become one' with the game you are playing. Especially if you are on drugs...
(Which I was for a significant period of my gaming history!)
Yes games allow you to kick ass like Bruce Lee, when you couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag, Drive like Colin McCrae when you haven't passed your test...

OR score goals like Steven Gerrard even when you were the last person to be picked for your playground team, during the dinnertime football match as a kid. ( Yes that's football, not soccer CALEB, FOOTBALL!)



So for me, (having given you a glimpse of my personal history) , to be able to project myself into the world of Tony Hawk and become a fucking shit hot skateboarder, is going to be a winner every time!!!

Now let's actually consider the game shall we? O.K.


Instant pick up and play potential... the mastery of the controls is simple. Getting it right in the flow of a skate sesion is not quite as simple, however. The game rewards you with points and money for good combos and a smooth two minutes of skatey showing off.


A 'power meter' at the top of the screen allows you to know how successful your intended skate trickery will be...
Hang on the lip of a half pipe in a 'gymnast plant' (you'll get used to the lingo) for too long will amass points, but do it for too long, and you'll crunch to the ground with a sickening thud.
Plus there's blood , lots of blood when you 'crash and burn' , but don't worry... your chosen skater will simply pick himself up, dust himself off, get on his 'board' and get on with the job...


THPS2 allows you to unlock new parks and levels. The initial level , " The Hangar" is a dream Skate Park...
It allows the novice skater to look good and score big points. The subsequent levels, (The School Yard and so on) are increasingly difficult to skate.
Level Three (Marseilles) is a skate competition, and a good leveller for knowing how crap you really are!
You skate against the AI attempting to win points, medals and dollars. You usually come last... and have to try again.

No problem. The game is so addictive, you'll want to play again and again.
I can't really tell you how many levels and skateparks there are, 'cos I haven't got that far...
But what I can tell you, is there's a lot to unlock, if you play long enough.
On each level there are secret sections with hidden goals. Each of these in turn will unlock points and cash, and this will help you progress to the next level.
Earned cash will enable you to buy 'stats' and 'tricks' which will enable yo to get further in the game.
There's a lot of 'customisation' within the game. You can choose from a variety of pro-skaters (Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Chad Muska or Kareem Cambell etc.) -Yes I've never heard of them either...
Customise their outfits, mess about with their skating 'stats', buy them new boards and even present them with a skatepark built to your own whims/specifications.


I've never seen this in a "Top Dreamcast Games Of All Time..." list, and that may well be because it was a multi-format game and not unique to the Dreamcast.
For me this is actually a bonus, 'cos I'm currently playing the DC version at home and playing the GBA version on my DS on the move. But the compatability is very good and something I've never experienced before. Bonus!!
To finish this rambling post, dear reader there's two surprising thing's I've found out whilst writing this epistle...

1.) The strange proliferation of Sega Swirl's , first identified by TeeLeeCee is still happening... Check this out! It just appeared on a sandwich I made for my Mrs!



2.) And also..THPS 2 is the favourite game of Hollywood beauty and Sin City star Rosario Dawson... who'd a thunk it?????


Good night children, wherever you are...

The Dreamcast refuses to die!

Even with the next-generation of gaming lumps of plastic looming over us and our wallets, the Dreamcast is, at least in Japan and in the homebrew scene, diggin itself out of it's grave now and then for the odd new game every few months. This year we've seen, well, a lot of scrolling shooters, but very good ones at that, in form of Radilgy and Under Defeat, the latter of which was one of the best looking games the console has pumped out yet, and while i does get a bit tiresome that they all turn out to be "Shumps", it could be a whole lot worse: The Japanese Dreamcast could be getting nothing more than dodgy dating sims with zero game play and big eyed most likely under age anime girls. Oh, and if you didn't know already, I'm actually quite the fan of Scrolling shooters, so this situation suits me just fine.

But don't fret, as not everything being released in the near future is going to involve little space ships with a hell of a lot of fire power, as there is also plenty of other types of games coming out of the Home Brew scene. Here I'll give you a taste of the NEW Dreamcast games on the way.

LAST HOPE
This Neo-Geo port's pre-orders ended up being the 2nd biggest selling item on Play-Asia last week, just behind Japanese imports of Sony's $600 lump of impending doom. Yes, it's another scrolling shooter, a genre of which is hardly loved by everyone even here at the Junkyard, but the game has been compared to classics such as R-Type and Gradius, so show it some respect. It's released this December, is region free, and can be bought now at Play-Asia, ready to be shipped your way on it's release for just over £20. Just don't expect fancy 3D graphics, this is old school 2D all the way. Here is a preview video for you all:


TRIGGER HEART EXELICA
With names like 'Under Defeat' and 'Last Hope', you'd think these developers are hinting that their releases are going to become the Dreamcast's last ever release, but then this announcement comes along of yet ANOTHER scrolling shooter on it's way in February 2007. Like any good 'shump' as some people like to call them, Trigger Heart has a unique feature (Read: gimmick) that separates it from other shumps, and in this one's case it's the ability to grab enemy ships (even the ones 50 times bigger than you) with what looks like a tractor beam, swing them about then toss them at other enemies. With this in place, you'll actually find yourself spending more time spinning hapless foes across the screen the you will shooting them with millions of little bullets. Here's some footage of what to expect, submitted at Youtube by BlueNocturne:


KAROUS (Rumored)
This one hasn't been confirmed as of yet, but it would come as no surprise to me at all if this got itself a Dreamcast port sometime next year. Produced by Mile Stone, Karous (That's Japanese for 'Crows', apparently), looks like a spiritual follow up to the Dreamcast ported Radigy, with similar game play elements, but this time with a slightly less cartoon-y, darker feel. The game was recently revealed in Japanese arcades and like it's predecessor, it's running on Sega's Naomi system, so a port would be a doddle. Come on Mile Stone, you know you wanna! Here's a trailer submitted at YouTube by Indygamer:


RADIUM
This Home Brew release, being ported to the Dreamcast, is said to be available sometime around Christmas. There's not a lot to go by about the Dreamcast version as of yet, but it's described on the website as "a futuristic-styled 3D action/adventure game, using a third person perspective. The game features a total 16 levels with 3D environments in 4 different sceneries, a multitude of weapons, bonuses and upgrades and a nicely balanced game play." Hmm!


AGE OF THE BEAST
This is Senile Team's follow up to the excellent Beats of Rage, improving on everything that game gave us while also using completely original graphics which are looking stunning! This time around the fighting is set in a Sword & Sorcery land, complete with knights and shining amour and hobbits...well, maybe not hobbits. It's looking set to be like the Golden Axe sequel we never got (I know there were two sequels, but they didn't improve on the first much), with 4 player co-op, magic spells, throws, sheids, wolves to ride about on, and a slew of bad guys to slash! It even runs in wide screen! Release date is unknown as of yet, but this is going to ROCK none the less. Here's the trailer to wet your appetite:



So there you have it. Who needs to spend money on new games for new consoles when you can spend money on new games for THIS console?

Dreamcast is Art! Evidence!

Of course we at the Junkyard knew this all along, but the Dreamcast is something of a work of art. Who needs the Perfect Man with his six arms, the Mona Lisa with her smile and some modern twat's untidy desk when you can have monkey's with maracas, pink haired ladies with long legs and fishing rod kung-fu? They say a picture can say a thousand words, so how about 60 pictures per second? The Da Vinci code? How about the Konami code?

Well, now it appears that people are finally starting to appreciate the master piece Sega has given us, with these two lumps of evidence I've discovered in the last two days.

EVIDENCE NUMBER ONE.

Yesterday, me Uni lot went on a trip up to Londo (Sorry, London) where we went to the Science Museum for the 'GAME ON' exhibit that is on there till February. I've posted more about this joyous, fantastic place at my personal Blog here, complete with dozens of photos, but here I want to point out that while the Dreamcast wasn't presented quite as well as it could have been (Samba De Amigo? Soul Calibur?) thy did have a few Dreamcast's set up for play. Just a cake walk from the projected Pong, you could play it's replacement Virtua Tennis 2, and there was also a Dreamcast running Bust-a-Move 4 further in. They also had a PS2 running the Dreamcast's swan song REZ, easily the strongest example of video games as an art form you can possibly get. Best of all, however, was that the Dreamcast was part of a long time line painting going across one of the walls by illustrator Jon Bugerman (No relation to the Burger King):

And the stuff surrounding the funny looking drawing of our favorite white box has more in common than you would first suspect: DDR was ported to the console in Japan, Half Life was on the Dreamcast at least in unreleased form, Metal Gear Solid was playable via one of the Bleem discs, and Cartman gave the console free adverting in an episode of South Park. Just ignore the mobile phone and X-Files thingys, they don't belong there.

The Game On Exhibit is on till some time in February, so make sure you hop over to the Science Museum in Londo (Gah, did it again. Darn you Fokker/Falcon!) while you still can, it's well worth he six quid to get in, if only for he six player Saturn Bomberman.

EVIDENCE NUMBER TWO.

Next up, you have a personal art project by a clever soul who goes by the name of Lydia, that I found out about thanks to Kotaku. Now what could possibly be a better way of celebrating such a wonderful piece of machinery than this?

So what is it made of? Chocolate? WRONG. Believe it or not, this is actually made of Bronze. Yes, an actual size, SIX KILO Bronze re-creation of the controller. And what's more, the memory card and rumble pack are separate pieces too! If hat's how heavy a bronze controller would be, imagine what a bronze Arcade stick would be like! Hoo hoo! Check out the rest of the photos here, then imagine walking into a posh art museum and spotting this sitting on a stand.

So there you have it. Dreamcast? Art. Art? Dreamcast. Dreamart? Artcast? Monkey's with maracas.

Just A Quickie....

Hey Peeps, Just posting a short note to inform you all of a lovely thing that happened to me this weekend. Now, this will not be a long epistle, for a number of reasons... 1.) It's quite late and I really should be doing other 'household/responsible father' type activities... 2.) It's not really a Dreamcast related topic, although I think I'll be able to form some type of tedious link to our favourite console... 3.) Due to my recent blogging frustrations, I'm half expecting Blogger to wipe out my 'creative writing' half way through, causing me to cry/ smash up my computer! O.K. here goes... The Three Gingers persuaded me to take a diversion on the way to the Lighthouse this weekend, swinging by the hallowed 'Gamestation' to offload a ton of 'other console' guff in a 'trade in' stylee... We took a load of PS2 games, a couple of DS games and a disfunctional PS2, ("mwuah ha ha!" he laughed evilly... They didn't know it is as temperamental as hell, and took it without testing! Ha! Take that Big Business!) Anyway, by the time they'd toted it up we got a massive trade in coupon worth... wait for it... £142! Hurrah! So, dear reader, it meant that the biggest Gingers had enough money to score the new Vice City game for PSP, plus Pro Evolution 6 for the PS2. O.K... That left me with £50 to indulge my Dreamcast obsession. Now regular visitors to this site (or said store) will know that you can pick up about 12 Dreamcast games for that amount of cash. However, on inspection of the DC section there was nothing I wanted or hadn't got... Just loads of copies of UEFA Dream Soccer... O.K. so they had Soul Calibur (I've got four copies...) Virtua Tennis (got it... although maybe I should have scored a back up copy in case of civil war or something...) Space Channel 5 for £2.50? I paid £7 plus postage for this gay dancing odyssey... BAH! HUMBUG! Now I didn't have £50 to spend you understand, I had £50 to trade... So I couldn't leave the shop empty handed. Damn! I had to check out the Saturn fayre... O.K. they had Virtua Racing for the Saturn... but it was £7.99. Hmmm... I fancied it but it wasn't essential... nothing else grabbed my attention... Over to "the cabinets". Now if you've ever visited this esteemed store, you will know that some of the best (retro at least) stuff they have in there, is locked behind glass, at bargain basement pices. First thing I saw was a 'boxed-up' "Virtua Cop 2" Light Gun package for the Saturn. Gun and game in themed box for £15.

Result!!! Next, (and this is what has inspired me to post) was presented in the cabinet just lying there, just waiting silently for me to find it, fall in love with it, and buy it instantly... (Despite the fact I'd never heard of it or quite frankly never needed it...) It was this.... Sega Game Gear!!!!!! Like the grandaddy to the PSP, and the superior ripost to Nintendo's ' Gayboy'.... Sorry Gameboy. This was Sega's bold attempt to enter the 'hand held' market. It's lifespan was from 1990 to 1997 and it notched up an impressive collection of titles... (see Wikipedia) I've so far played 'Ninja Gaiden' and 'Columns'... the Sega version of Tetris... which incidentally was a feature of the Dreamcast title 'Sega Smash Pack' (see how I cleverly linked up to the Dreamcast?... And just to add other weird synchronicity to this experience, one of the other titles I picked up was the Sega Smash Pack for the Gameboy Advance for £5... which I can play on my DS! Including.. Golden Axe! (See earlier post....) plus ECCO & Sonic Spinball. ( A rare import for the GBA) Now as if all this wasn't enough, as I went to pay for said haul at the counter, I noticed in the peripheral section, a 'see through' green Madcatz DC controller for the princely sum of 99p!!!! It goes perfectly with my 'see through' green Dreamcast...


So there is a God,

He has a plan, and Gamestation is where you can experience it. Post over. Good night children, wherever you are... P.S. Whilst researching 'Game Gear' I've just discovered that it is the favourite console of Mexican Love Goddess Salma Hayek! Who would have thought it???