Erm...

The Dreamcast Junkyard would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Primitive Nightmare Inbound!

Word. Sorry for the complete lack of an Aerowings 2 review. The truth is that I still haven't really been able to get enough free time to actually sit down and play it properly. I could cobble together a review from the five minutes I've spent doing the training missions and the other reviews I've read elsewhere on the internet, but that ain't how we roll down at the 'Yard.

It's not all bad news though, oh no. I have recently been contacted by a reader who goes by the name of Fuseki. Why? Because Fuseki is releasing a brand new indie DC game, that's why! Planned for a January 2010 release (as a free, downloadable disk image, no less), Primitive Nightmare is an original-looking shoot 'em up that, to me at least, looks a bit like a retro Atari game. His words:

"The game is called Primitive Nightmare. It's an old-school style shooter

that combines elements of classic 80s arcade shooters with some strategic elements. The game is currently in the late WIP stage (I need to do a little more tweaking, and add instruction screens) but the gameplay itself is 99% finished. I hope to have it out as a freely downloadable disc image in January 2010 (a website should be up by then as well)."

Screens? Why, yes:

It's always good to hear from DCJY readers, and it's especially good when those readers are pumping out new software for our favourite undead console. All Hail...you know the rest.

Yukawa Prepaid Cash Cards Are Not Worth $90

...unless of course they have $90 on them and are unexpired.

I'm not one to post ebay auctions, but I thought this was a unique enough one to mention and the seller offered a high res image worthy of sharing. The auction is for a set of six QUO prepaid cards featuring Senior Managing Director of Sega Hidekazu Yukawa. During the Dreamcast days, Yukawa appeared in commercials, had his own video game and appeared on a variety of products such as phone chotchkies and the aforementioned prepaid cards.

Middle row, right column is my fave

While I myself have a variety of other Sega things that I would rather blow my money on, I invite any Sega fan who reads this to buy it just so that said buyer can give us high res scans of each card.

The seller's image is great, but I'm looking for something so high res that I can just print it on heavy card stock and have essentially the same thing but at no cost. ;) Until then, enjoy the image above.

Wonder how these cards were distributed? Check out this nifty article on Yukawa's Sonic Adventure Sweepstakes!

12/16 Update: The cash cards are still unsold. However this item was just sold to me for $14.50. I already had the Yukawa Dreamcast box, the Yukawa game and the Yukawa What's Shenmue? demo, so a phone dongle was the next obvious purchase.

This Is My Dsmbr

Wooo! It's December! Which means it's nearly Christmas. Wooo! Just think - we can all spend hours upon hours walking around shopping centres, battling crowds and wracking our brains on what to buy for that special person, only for them to receive the carefully selected gift on the big day, rip the wrapping paper off and say "...oh, er, that's nice." Well, to that shit I say NAY! For this year, dear reader, I will be buying exactly nothing for exactly no-one. Now, I realise that's a massive double negative and actually infers that I, Tomleecee will actually be buying something for everyone...but you get my drift. Right?

Just as well I'm not buying in to the festivities this year really, as it leaves me with more money to buy firkins of moonshine (which will no doubt be consumed alone, in a cold, bare room on Christmas Day)...and Dreamcast games. The latter of which are things I've been snapping up with alarming regularity of late. The reason it's taken me a week to get around to writing this diatribe though is that I've been patiently waiting for all of these games to be delivered, as they were mostly purchased off of that there popular online auction site...as the BBC may refer to it.

These days I tend to go for the more unusual, harder to find games that were released for the PAL system, and this week I got hold of a game that I've been trying to get my hands on for ages. I realise that there are other, much more highly sought-after titles out there in NTSC-land, but I don't really dabble with the US/Jap side of things - I leave that stuff to the more learned amongst the DCJY team. And speaking of more learned team mates, Happy Birthday to Gagaman! It was his birthday on Monday but he kept it quiet, so feel free offer your condolences via the comments section. Cough. Getting back to the point, I tend to go after the blue boxed rarities rather than the orange ones, and this week's haul has united me with one such gem...but before I get to it, here's a quick run-down of the other stuff that arrived this week. Cheers postie! No more strikes, please!

Grand Theft Auto 2

Yep, long before Tony Whats-his-face or Nico Bellic were mincing about a fully 3D Liberty City, car-jacking and shagging hoes in alleys, GTA was firmly rooted in the realms of the 'top down shooter.' GTA 2 diverts from the original PSX game in that it's set in a sort of semi-futuristic world where several major gangs rule over the city, and you have to please each gang leader in turn to unlock new missions etc.

Let's be honest here - every man and his dog has played GTA in some form or another, so there's little point in me bleating on about how it works. What I will bleat on about though, is just how badly this game seems to have aged. Back when GTA 2 was released, nobody knew that the 3rd installment of the series would lead to a semi-revolution in the way all games were created, and the humble origins of today's titles seem a million miles away from the GTA we know and love.

From the top-down view (I still reckon the DC has enough grunt to handle a fully 3D version of this game, just look at Crazy Taxi for proof) and non-existent storyline, to the slightly bizarre control set up (the button configurations are ker-azy) and the disorientating way the vehicles handle, GTA 2 feels just plain odd to play nowadays. It still holds a lot of charm in a 'this-is-how-it-all-began' kind way, but to be honest I'd much rather play GTA 4 than this anyday.

MTV Skateboarding Feat. Andy McDonald

Hands up if you've ever heard of Andy McDonald? At first I thought this was a skateboarding game featuring that bloke who used to be in Coronation Street (sorry non-UK readers who haven't got a fucking clue what I'm on about), but it transpires that Andy McDonald is a skateboarder! Who'd have thunk it?! Hot on the tail of old war-horse Tony Hawk, Andy McDonald's title tries so, so hard to trump the master at his own game...but sadly (and rather inevitably) falls slightly short of the railing, bails and then smashes his teeth out by landing face-first on the pavement (or as Andy would probably say, sidewalk).

You know, I actually bought a real-life skateboard earlier this year, along with all the relevant gear (helmet, pads, trendy Vans trainers etc) because I somehow got it into my head that I wanted to learn how to do it properly. I went down to the local skate park and it quickly dawned on me that I was the only 27-year-old there...and that I couldn't ride the board for shit. The reason I tell you this slightly embarrassing anecdote is because if you took my skateboarding skills and made a game out of them, MTV Skateboarding is what you'd end up with: it's got the best intentions in the world (brilliant soundtrack, decent graphics, nice front end), but it hasn't got an ounce of the finesse of the professionals.

It actually looks quite good y'know. Shame about the Slow-mo pace.

And by this I mean that the controls suck beyond belief (there's about a 3 second delay between you pressing 'A' and an 'ollie' being performed on-screen), the frame rate makes it look like you're playing the game in half-speed (like on a DVD when you press pause and then play) and the various game-modes are hard as nails to actually get anywhere in. An example: in the 'Collect' mode, you have to collect MTV logos. Collect 10 and you'll open the next skate park. The thing is, if you collect a logo and then fall off your board (which you will - constantly), you lose it and it magically flies off back to where you collected it from! How unfair is that?! Bah - go away Andy McDonald and take your lame-ass Tony Hawk rip-off with you. Leave the soundtrack though, cock munch.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I gave the skateboard to a friend's 13 year old son. Kept the Vans for playing Speedball in though.

NBA Hoopz

Basketball. Never really been interested in it to be honest, although I gather it's all the rage in the territories...erm, sorry 'America.' Anyway, before I cause a bigger outrage than that time when half of Liverpool wanted me dead for calling John Lennon a chav, let's get back to the task in hand: NBA Hoopz. Anybody remember NBA Jam? I had it on the Atari Jaguar many, many moons ago and back then - being a person of simpler tastes - I found it quite enjoyable. Well, NBA Hoopz is quite similar in that it features teams of 3 players 'balling' and 'letting rip' with outlandish special moves and dribbling skills. For me, the real life sport offers little because to my eye it just looks like a load of massive, muscly men running back and forth across a badminton court - but NBA Hoopz does offer some entertainment simply because it adds an air of ridiculousness to proceedings.

Reflections, motherfucka! Mr Ronseal's work is done here

The players themselves are slightly super-deformed, so you can pretty much tell from the off it's not going to be another super-serious NBA 2K2-athon - and you'd be right. The action is frantic and sometimes a bit hard to follow as the possession of the ball constantly switches sides and the size of the court leads to shots raining in constantly...which in turn leads to some very high-scoring matches. NBA Hoopz has everything you'd expect from an NBA title - licensed teams, squeaky sound effects and OTT play by play commentary. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the game...so if you're a fan of the subject matter then you'll probably get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Fair enough?

Aerowings 2: Air Strike

Oh yeah. Now we're talking. Remember 10 minutes ago before you read all that shite about my skateboard and Nico Bellic? Those 10 minutes you'll never get back? Remember? I was on about a game I've been after for ages. This is that game! Aerowings 2! It's even got a cool sub-title: Air Strike. Just rolls off the tongue doesn't it? Don't answer - that was rhetorical. So here we are then, the last great Dreamcast game that I've been searching for. Oh, there are others I don't yet have in my collection, but they can wait; Airstrike appears on ebay but once in a blue moon, so to actually win the auction was quite a momentous occasion for me. Yes, maybe I do need to get out more, but I'VE FINALLY GOT AEROWINGS 2!!! So how does it play? Well...

Watch this space very shortly for a full-scale 'proper' review. Natch*.

*Credit to Amiga Power, circa 1994.

Skin Deep

Ah, Dreamcast racing games. Forgive me if I'm wrong (and I usually am), but to my untrained eye it would seem that the Dreamcast has more racing games than any other type. From the truly awesome (MSR, Daytona 2001), to the middling but still fun (Re-volt, Speed Devils), to the fucking abhorrent (E.O.S., Roadsters). There is, though, a common theme in the vast majority of the DC's racers - they almost all feature cars. Yep, boring old cars. With four wheels. Again, there are exceptions to this rule (snowmobiles, jet skis and motorbikes are hiding somewhere), but for me the most under-represented mode of transport has got to be the futuristic floaty car. Sure, there's Episode One: Racer and Looney Tunes Space Race, but where's the Dreamcast's Wipeout clone?! You know, with cool looking pointy ships, mental twisty racing circuits and amazing explosions? Well, I thought I'd found it. Only it's not the awesome thrill-ride I was hoping for. It's merely 'meh.'

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the newest entry into the Junkyard...it's Magforce Racing!

Thinking about it, the PSX had the aforementioned Wipeout, the N64 had F-Zero X and Extreme G, even the Saturn had the alright-in-a-mid-ninties-sort-of-way High Octane...and the DC has...Magforce Racing. Hmmm.

OK, so we've established through association that Magforce is a futuristic racing game. Twisty tracks? Check. High speeds? Check. Cool looking pointy ships? Erm...no, actually. For some reason, the developers eschewed the usual style of vehicle for some truly hideous designs. Rather than have wedge-shaped formula 12000 beasts, Magforce Racing gives you the chance to strap yourself into the cockpit of one of a number of crap-looking 'tripods.' Tripods! Why? They look pathetic! The story goes that these tripods have a wheel under each 'leg' that is magnetically charged and allows the vehicles to stick to the track when they inevitably travel along upside-down sections of the circuit...and that explains the need for you to drive over the glowing yellow strips dotted about in order to charge up your 'magnet power,' or something. If this power runs out, you can't drive on the ceiling anymore, and if you're on the ceiling when it runs out you fall to the ground below. If this had some kind of effect on your vehicle (like visible damage or the depletion of a shield bar, ala Wipeout) then it might have had more relevance...but alas no such luxuries exist in Magforce Racing. In actual fact, the whole 'magnets' thing does little more than provide a nice title for the game (Magforce...geddit?!).

Moscow. In the future. You can tell because of the Palace in the background.

And the generic industrial - orange sky.

Speaking of a lack of any kind of damage model for the game, the inclusion of a weapons upgrade system seems like little more than an afterthought by the developer (little known VCC Entertainment, just in case you were wondering. They also made Killer Loop for the PSX, which is in effect the semi-prequel to Magforce). This is evident in the way that even though you can collect and upgrade various weapons (lasers, mines, missiles etc), when you fire them at an opponent the result is little more than a loss in speed for the victim. Obviously, this can help you get past them but there's little incentive to use the weapons...because if you collect four in a row without firing them off, you get a 'turbo ram' that makes you invincible and blasts you along the track at ridiculous uncontrollable speeds. Want to win any race with ease? Just keep collecting four weapons and turbo ram everyone else out of the way like a massive futuristic knob in a dodgem. I used this tactic quite a bit once I'd discovered it and you'll need it to unlock the higher class vehicles and tracks because rather than employ a normal 'championship' option, all Magforce offers is a series of one-off races. You know the drill - finish each track in first place in a particular vehicle and you open up the next class and a few new circuits...but the shit thing is that you can only play them with the vehicle you unlocked them with. Again, looks like another lazy design choice on behalf of VCC. Why couldn't they have put in a proper league mode or something? All you get is that single race mode and a time attack.

As mentioned, the 'cars' look a bit gash.

So what you get with Magforce racing is a pretty run-of-the-mill futuristic racer with really crap vehicle designs and very few play modes. It does have one thing going for it though: the graphics are fecking brilliant! When I first started playing it, I was quite overwhelmed by how smooth everything was and how slick it looked. Sure, by today's DiRT 2 standards Magforce looks horribly dated, what with it's lack of real-time shadows and specular lighting...but back in 2000 this must've looked the dogs bollocks. The tracks (whilst slightly generic) twist and turn all over the shop and feature some rather impressive enormous architecture - in places it reminded me of Wipeout on the PS2, with it's cavernous mountainside entrances and underwater translucent tunnels. It's just a shame that the programmers didn't go the whole hog with some over-the-top lens flares and the like - because with a few more effects lavished over the top of the ace track detail and eye-watering pace, Magforce could've been possibly the best looking racer on the Dreamcast. As it is, it's still up there with the best of 'em - but you can't help but ponder what else could've been done with the game engine.

To surmise, Magforce Racing is a generic futuristic racer. It's got a techno soundtrack, minimalist front end, a dearth of play modes...but is damn nice to look at. Oh, and it only cost me £3 from Chips in Gloucester. I believe the phrase is "wOOt." Cough.

A Dreamcast "What if?"

Sure, this is The Dreamcast Junkyard, but did you also know that we are also Earth conscious? Why waste precious digital letters when you can reuse and recycle! What follows is an article I wrote over at The Nomad Junkyard earlier this year:

Had the Dreamcast lived on, would we still have had Sonic Heroes? This was a question I asked at the Sonic Stadium. I think its an interesting question, just as interesting as asking "In Back to the Future, what would happen had Marty knocked up his own mother?" Food for thought.

I received some interesting replies. Some thought that Heroes would have come out on Dreamcast (exclusively, of course) and the rest of the games we have now would have followed suit. Sonic Riders Zero Gravity would have been the last Sonic game to appear on the Dreamcast, and we would have been treated to a much better Sonic '06 as a launch game for the Dreamcast 2 or Sega Cyclone or Sega Infinity (basically Sega's next step after the Dreamcast).

Others believed that we would have been treated to a Sonic Adventure 3 with a plot similar to Sonic Heroes and gameplay that was more in line with Sonic Adventure 2. This led to a bit of complaining over how some Sonic fans believe that Sonic Adventure 3 is just a fanboys answer to the perfect Sonic game that never happened. Those who think a third entry in the Adventure series would have saved us from "the dark times" are complete loons who are better off wishing Sonic & Mario would team up (wait, nevermind that last part).

This discussion inspired me to design boxart for Dreamcast games that might have been, had the console and Sonic series lived on together. Enjoy!

Exclusive Rush Rush Rally Racing Wallpaper! Ooh!

The reason it's exclusive is pretty simple: I drew it. I was going to hold off on releasing this until the Rummage review was ready (will be at the start of the video), but instead I thought it may tide you over until the review is ready, which I'm not sure when that will be because I haven't started recording it yet, want to get decent enough at the game to show plenty of it! I've provided the wallpaper in plenty of shapes and sizes: find them below!

1024 X 768

1280 X 960

1920 X 1080

2560 X 1600

DCJY InsideOut: Rush Rush Rally Racing

Here's what showed up in the post yesterday! I've played it for a couple hours so far now (I recorded yesterday morning) and it's fun though it maybe could have done with more than just one 1-player mode, or at least the multiplayer modes vs the cpu as well. Of course I'm only saying that because I've got no friends.The presentation is very slick though, with neat animated cut scenes and a brillaint soundtrack. This regular edition of the games only costs about £15-20 (a lot cheaper than previous indie releases from RedSpotGames I believe) so it's worth a look especially if you enjoyed top down 2D racers in the past, and unlike Micro Machines there isn't pits everywhere!

Lawsuit Imminent Part 4: Ker-azy Copyright Infringement

Went to the gym the other day. Not been for a while as I have recently discovered the liberating past time of long-distance road running. That, and the fact that 'working out' in a stifling mirror-filled room full of narcissistic, impossibly muscled grunting wankers makes me feel physically sick. Getting back to the point though - I went to the gym.

So there I was, sweating away with the rest of the cunts and when I could stand no more of the red-faced screeching buffoon checking out his bicep in the mirror next to me - I decided to leave. Now, you know how in gyms there's always a table near the entrance that is strewn with random pamphlets and leaflets advertising yoga classes, Indian takeaways, ultra-max beefcake shakes and all that sort of shite? Well, there was one in the gym I visited. And d'you know what? Upon that very table I found something Dreamcast related! YES! How fucking random is that?! Check out this flyer created and circulated by Somerset County Council that advises people not to use unliscensed taxis:

Notice anything strange? Apart from the obvious copyright infringement and image theft from the movie Taxi Driver, look a little closer. Look at the TAXI. Look crazily familiar?!

Here's a clue:

It's Axel's motor! And if you look closely at the back of the flyer, you can see that the photoshop wizards down at the town hall haven't even bothered to remove the 1NOM155 licence plate from the front of the cab. Interestingly, the helpful garb states that 'pirate taxis are unlicensed, uninsured and very unsafe,' yet makes no mention whatsoever of the shortcuts they take across rooftops, under the sea and through subway tunnels whilst expecting tips for not killing you in a multi-car pile up.

There are some slightly more sinister things on the flyer too - the 'issuer' on the mock-up taxi liscenses is 'SS,' and the driver I.D. has a little picture of Joseph Goebbels on it.*

If I were Phoenix Wright, I'd be on the blower to Sega HQ asap. Sadly though, I'm not a high-powered cartoon attorney with an improbable quiff. Sigh.

*This is a lie.

Dreamcast rated as One of the "Best Toys of All Time"

http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/280/the-best-toys-of-all-time/

This list was created by Good Houseskeeping.

Sega Dreamcast
In 1999, the season's to-die-for item was the Sega Dreamcast Console ($199). The chip inside this 128-bit system processed graphics four times faster than a Pentium II. Plus, the unit played CDs and had a built-in 56K modem, so kids could surf the Web on the TV with the optional keyboard. Forty games ($39.95 to $49.95) will be available for the holidays. We featured Sega in a December 1999 story, "Buyer's Guide."

Interesting. This was for the 90's. One could say that the MegaDrive/Genesis was actually the big thing for the 90's (especially in the UK).

Of course this list also has an "Ultimate Planetarium" listed as a toy so we might want to take this with a grain of salt...

More on that Hypertension game!

Just in time for...no wait..just a little late of Halloween more details and a new trailer of TDGmods' Dreamcast FPS/PRG hybrid HyperTension. The gory trailer is just below, this time we get to see plenty of gameplay of this elaborate Doom mod. It even has Voodoo dolls! Oh yeah, it gets a bit noisy about 2 minutes in, just in case your volumes up to 11.

Better yet, there is a nice legthy interview with the guys making this over at Diehard GameFAN which you can read here, and there is also a Wiki set up for the game and you can hear more of the soundtrack at their blog.

Speaking of brand new Dreamcast games one just arrived in the post this morning. Expect a video soon!

Orange Swirl

Happy Halloween from the Dreamcast Junkyard! Thought we forgot? Of course we did....n't.

Reader Aaron Boone reminded us in the comments section of the last post that there wasn't a Halloween post, so now I've made one. Aaron also pointed to last year's Halloween post:
Dreamcast Games to Play on Halloween. To continue that tradition, here are a few more Dreamcast games to play on Halloween (I've got a World Series game to watch so I'm keeping this brief):

Sonic Adventure 2
While not a complete Halloween game, Sonic Adventure 2 includes quite a few spooky segments. The Pyramid Cave levels feature creepy little ghosts, Pumpkin Hill boasts an "impressive" lyrical accompaniment and last but not least there is King Boom Boo. BLARGH!!!!







Zombie Revenge
An, in my opinion, under-appreciated spin-off from House of the Dead. I wonder how many people actually even know that this is a House of the Dead game?



Shadowman
A dark platforming action game (sometimes too dark, I can't see what I'm looking at!) with the ability to shift between two worlds. Sounds like Soul Reaver's ugly cousin, and it sort of is. Still, it's a great game and I love that voodoo vibe.



So kids, what are your picks?

Rez - The Core

Hello world. I was recently contacted by a fellow by the name of Tjerk Otten about his Rez inspired, abstract short film on Youtube.

In his words:

"The story on this trailer is about humanity trying to hack into creation itself.

We try to unravel the great mystery of life itself all the time. We are creations on our own and

we try to expand our lifecycle in many different ways and try to know the human itself."

Tjerk is a self confessed Rez nut, and this is quite evident in 'The Core.' Wanna see what he's on about, fellow Dreamcaster? Cast your eyes downward and all will be revealed:

It's best viewed in HD and full screen, so if like me you have to rely on a pathetic mobile broadband dongle with equally pathetic GPRS connection, you could be waiting the best part of a decade for the whole thing to load...but it's worth the wait.

Zombies and the Dreamcast. A perfect match.

Zombies have been a big theme in my life lately.

I am going to be participating in a Zombie Walk tonight. (That's where a bunch of people dress up as zombies and walk around town, self explanatory really.) If there is a chance, I am also going to be shooting some footage of the event for my public access cable TV show.

I have also organized a free movie night at the library where we will be showing some great movies including "Nosferatu" and "Night of the Living Dead".

And therein lies the tenuous connection to the Dreamcast...

Go to the DC Evolution site to get your very own copy of "Night of the Living Dead" to play in your Dreamcast!

Yes, the famous 1968 film by George Romero (which was never meant to be released into the public domain so soon) is perhaps the most awesome movie available in the public domain! It has been called the first modern horror film and the first and greatest zombie movie of all time.

So now the Undead Console can play one of the great undead films of all time! All for the cost of a CD-R!

DC Evolution has three other awesome public access horror movies formatted to play on a Dreamcast. So visit their site.

http://www.dcevolution.net/

IMDB Night of the Living Dead.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063350/

Wikipedia about Night of the Living Dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead

All Hail the Undead Console!

Station Square, Pennsylvania?!

Have you ever wanted to enter the world of Sonic? Seeing and experiencing it firsthand? Well yesterday, I did. No, I didn't take some mushrooms and play a game of Sonic Shuffle. I visited the real Station Square! Que the theme song: Doo-doo-doo-doooo dee-doo-dee-doo-doo-doo-doo-doooo!

Station Square at night, the perfect time to enter Speed Highway

I discovered Station Square while on a road trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Me and two buddies were heading to the Full Moon Horror Roadshow to meet the guy who created Puppet Master, Ghoulies and the Troll films. The show was being held at a place called Station Square, and being the Dreamcast fan that I am my ears perked up. Blog fodder! Things got even better when we drove in. It really was similar to Sonic Adventure's Station Square.

Like the video game Station Square, the real Station Square was on the edge of a large city next to a body of water. One could easily board boats, just like in the game, although I don't know if they took you to the Egg Carrier.

The real Station Square also featured trains! Although unlike the game they did not take you the mountainous region of the Mystic Ruins...

Oh wait! Holy crap! You COULD take the trains from Station Square into a mountainous region! I didn't have time to check out if there was a real Mystic Ruins over the hills, so I'll just assume there was.

Real Station Square even featured shops, including a burger shop! I swear I even saw Amy Rose shopping for groceries...

There was no announcer welcoming me to Station Square, however there were these signs about. I'm assuming East Warehouse is a Shenmue reference. They failed to point out where the Chao Garden was. I assume it was in the hotel. Oh yeah, they had a hotel too.

Just. Like. In. The. Game.

Okay. So Pittsburgh's Station Square contained just about everything the video game version had, but it was missing something...


Ah yes! The SEGA logo. Station Square is complete.
Visit Station Square today!

I'm Thinking.

I've finally made it. After eleven months of climbing the Sega blog ladder, I've joined the Dreamcast Junkyard. See kids? All it takes to dominate four Sega blogs is a little perseverance, some smart-ass comments, Father Krishna and Tomleecee. The latter of the two accepts paypal, making bribes easy and convenient.

Before I begin my introduction I wanted to set a few things straight. First off, I'd like to apologize to Tomleecee for going off on him for hating on the movie Punch-Drunk Love. I can agree, that as an Adam Sandler movie, it is awful. However, as a piece of modern cinema it's excellent. Paul Thomas Anderson is a filmmaking genius and was nice enough to give a Sega Dreamcast some screen time. Secondly, that British Shenmue video was made by me.

My Dreamcast fandom began in September 1999. The Dreamcast was the first Sega system, since the Genesis, that I dived into on day one. As the Dreamcast debuted in September, and my birthday is in November, I had to bide my time with magazine articles and short play sessions at mall kiosks. When my fifteenth birthday hit, in came the cash from the grandparents. Soon I had enough for a new system, a VMU and Sonic Adventure. I remember the store was sold out of the game, so I had to spend a week playing only the bundled Dreamcast Generator demo disc. Sure I could've rented the game, but then I'd never want to return it! Once Sonic Adventure was in my hands, I was a Dreamcast fan through and through. The Official Dreamcast Magazine was my bible, and I picked up as many games as I could in the console's 2 year lifespan.

My collection has really grown over the past ten years

I remember the day I learned the Dreamcast was being discontinued. It was on Tech TV's XPlay. I still hate Adam Sessler for breaking the news. Despite the "death" of the Dreamcast, I continued to buy the usual used game until 2003 when I went off to college. I wisely brought my Dreamcast with me, making one of the few dudes in my dorm to own a video game console (I went to an art school, so there weren't too many gamers).


Upon graduating I moved to Philadelphia where I currently live with my girlfriend. She puts up with me owning all this stuff, so shes a keeper. As school assignments were behind me, and I had a steady income, I turned to ebay to fill in the gaps of my collection.


Since 2007, my Dreamcast collection has doubled, with a few more consoles and lots of wacky accessories joining the pile. Gagaman is to thank for making me want to buy a DreamEye.

Yeah, I know the Space Channel 5 soundtrack is a bootleg.

I'm missing issues 0, 2 and 3. If you have them and are willing to sell, hit me up in the comments section.

There is so much more I could say about the Dreamcast, but I'll save it for another article. Happy to be here and looking forward to the future!

Small, blue, spikey and fast as lightning... It's Barry The Nomad!!!

I've been wanting this to happen for such a long time, and now finally the stars and planets are in the right alignment, for the arrival of a brand new correspondent here at the Dreamcast Junkyard.

He's no stranger to these parts, you'll have seen his small, blue, rodent-like form scuttling over every post that appears on this hallowed site. Equipped with an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Sega, a lightning quick sense of humour and an uncanny affinity with Northern England, despite living in the land of the Liberty Bell (that's Philadelphia to me and you), Barry has been a staunch supporter of the Dreamcast Junkyard for the last year or more.

I'm sure I've seen this guy somewhere before...

As well as this he has been the main contributor over at our sister site, The Saturn Junkyard and the sole creator of, and contributor to, the very excellent Nomad Junkyard, which can be found residing in the sidebar of these very pages.

Anyway, that's enough waffle from me, I'm just dying to see what flows from his creative... erm... nib (?) over the next few days, weeks and months. So without any further ado, I give to you, the one and only, Barry The Nomad!!!