Dreamcast VR Roundup

Today, lets take a look at the recent developments in Dreamcast VR gaming. If you’re only interested in DC-related content, feel free to skip past my incoherent ramblings to the meat of the post further down the page. I won’t take it personally. You...you...giant talking egg!

The Game On exhibition was held in Tokyo earlier this year.

In May, I was lucky enough to be given the chance to sample the yet to be released PS VR at the Game On Expo in Tokyo; where I was treated to playable demos of the promising 'Getaway: London Heist' and incoming virtual reality adaptation of DC classic Rez. From the instant the headset was placed on my head by the rather beautiful Japanese Sony representative, I was transported to a different dimension, quickly losing any awareness of my real life surroundings and becoming completely absorbed in my new virtual world. 

Anyone who has conversed with me on the topic of modern gaming knows that I held a rather pessimistic view on the direction the games industry has been progressing in recent years, and despite owning all three of the current gen systems, I’ve yet to really be impressed by any of them...until now. I’m not ashamed to say it, but VR caught me completely off guard and has blown me away. This is the leap in gaming I've been impatiently waiting for since Shenmue was booted up for the first time in my childhood bedroom…and well, as of late, I’ve gone a bit VR mad.

Xenocider Pre-Orders Open, New Demo Available

The tale of Retro Sumus' ambitious Sin & Punishment-style shooter Xenocider has been well documented here at the Junkyard, but things are looking up for the Spanish outfit. How so? Well, pre-orders for the game are now open, and it also appears to have become a Dreamcast exclusive! From the Retro Sumus website:

"We like to believe we listen to our audience. After the hangover of our failed Kickstarter campaign, fans of both the Ameba and Xenocider projects suggested good old pre-orders. We weren’t sure if that was a feasible option, as we have never wanted to become just another dev team who make promises they can’t deliver. As we have claimed many times, our goal is total transparency, and the last thing we wish is to lose the little trust we earned from those fans.

So we listened. We considered. We re-considered. We re-evaluated our options, our means, our objectives, our possibilities. We solved our differences via Virtua Fighter matches, because that’s what well educated guys do.

And here we are. After all that careful consideration, we agreed to focus our efforts on developing Xenocider for Dreamcast exclusively. This may well reduce our potential profit to almost none, but who cares. Xenocider is still alive, with three stages virtually finished, and our plan is to complete development in less than a year from now. And you can pre-order the regular, limited, PAL or steelbook editions of the game from our new shop today!"

- Retro Sumus

Guest Article: Sega Should Resurrect The Dreamcast Brand

You many be familiar with the name Luke Benstead. He's the guy responsible for creating the DreamPi - the Raspberry Pi based device that is enabling Dreamcast owners to get back online around the world. We've covered Luke's work extensively here at the Junkyard, he appeared as a guest on an episode of DreamPod and he wrote a previous guest article for us. In this new guest article though, Luke takes a look at what it would take to resurrect the Dreamcast brand...

Recently, it was the 17th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast in the US and the occasion caused Twitter and Faceback to fill with birthday greetings for the console that refuses to die. If you're reading this you are probably well aware of the stubborn and ever-growing 'Dreamcast Scene,' but if this is news to you then I'll give you a quick overview. 

Dreamcast trended on Twitter briefly on 9/9/2016

After Sega stopped supporting their last home console, homebrew developers made tools to create games for it, and every year more and more games created by indie developers are released. On top of that, the Dreamcast continues to gain more and more online multiplayer games as aspiring geniuses reverse engineer the old game servers. Just in the past year alone, Chu Chu Rocket, Toy Racer (dial up), PAL Quake III Arena and The Next Tetris, have returned from the dead. On the horizon is Alien Front Online, and there are sure to be more to come. There are weekly game nights scheduled for both the US and UK, and well over 100 people now regularly play online. Which is quite some achievement considering you have to actually do some soldering to get the dial-up Dreamcast to connect in a fibre-optic world. 

In summary, the Dreamcast isn't dead, it's alive and well. Sure it doesn't compete with current gen consoles but no other console in history has had as much community support. Which brings me onto the main topic of the article; Sega should bring the Dreamcast back. 

Competition: Win Propeller Arena For Dreamcast!

We took a closer look at Sega's fabulous airborne battle game recently, and also the reasons behind its cancellation. If you'd like to know more, feel free to go here and have a look at the article in question. The long and short of it though, is that Propeller Arena is a brilliant game and one that you should definitely seek out if you want a demonstration of just how good late era Dreamcast games can look, sound and play. In fact, here's a screen I took on my very own Dreamcast mere weeks ago:

Looks good, eh? Anyway, on the back of our recent retrospective we teamed up with talented DCJY Facebook group member Martin Kay to offer three of you lucky folk the chance to win a very unique prize: a copy of Propeller Arena, complete with PAL case, manual, printed covers and a Shenmue-style cardboard protective sleeve!

These things were hand made by Martin and look like official games, and as they're repros they will run in any Dreamcast that can play copied games - without the use of a boot disc. Props must go the Martin (see what we did there?) for his efforts as these copies of the game really do look amazing and would look awesome on any Dreamcast collector's shelf.

Dreamcast Magazine Issue 17

Issue 17 of Paragon Publishing's unofficial Dreamcast Magazine was available to purchase in UK corner shops from 28th December 2000. Costing just £2.99 and nestled in amongst the Buckfast and Wham Bars, issue 17 featured Ubisoft and Darkworks' Lovecraft-inspired horror adventure Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare on the cover; alongside Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Tomb Raider Chronicles. The biggest draw for buyers of Dreamcast Magazine issue 17 though, was the infamous cover-mounted free gift.

The Blaze Xploder DC Cheats CD was intended to be a sample of the full product, which allowed users to activate cheats in Dreamcast games. Promising exotic treats such as infinite lives, the removal of in-game timers, and naked characters (probably); the demo version bundled with issue 17 allowed gamers to implement certain 'pokes' in a limited selection of 'titles.' However, it quickly became apparent that while the disc did indeed work as intended, it also bestowed upon users the ability to completely bypass the regional lockout of the Dreamcast and thus opened the door for UK gamers to play NTSC-U and NTSC-J games on their PAL systems.

Imagine for a moment that you answered an innocent knock on your front door, only to be confronted by Professor X who proceded to explain that you were the heir to Stark Industries and were now the new Iron Man. Yes, I know I'm mixing franchises, but this is the kind of power we're talking about. Sort of. It isn't. Anyway, this wasn't the only time such a blunder glorious fuck up was made by a magazine in the UK (as this recent Eurogamer article from former DC-UK editor Keith Stuart will testify); but it was certainly the first time it happened with a disc given away by Dreamcast Magazine, and it probably didn't help Paragon's relationship with Sega Europe either.

Event: Dreamcast 17th Anniversary Event, Burbank CA

Every time I put up a post here at the Junkyard detailing a new event we're attending, there always seem to be tonnes of people disappointed that they're generally held in the UK. That's because most of us here are based in old Blighty and since Brexit we're not even allowed to leave anymore. Naturally I jest, but this isn't a joke: there's a Dreamcast 17th anniversary event happening in Burbank, California on 9/9/16! This event is being run by friend of the Junkyard CD ageS (you know, the guy who owns the super rare SFL-2000P1 Control Unit we featured a while back), and sounds like a perfect way to celebrate the US birthday of our favourite console.

Click for a larger version!

This event is, as the name and date on which it is being held suggest, a celebration of the NTSC-U Dreamcast reaching the ripe old age of 17; and the venue - Game Realms - is one of the largest game stores in the area. Game Realms is no stranger to putting on awesome events and this one will be no different, featuring a selection of free play consoles and Dreamcast classics from 1pm on the day. Further to this, after 7pm the ambience will take on a slightly more competitive edge as the tournament begin and games are streamed on Twitch.

Entry before 7pm is free, after this time tickets cost $7. For further information, be sure to check out Game Realms' Facebook page and website. For those in the UK, The Dreamcast Junkyard will once again have a presence at Play Expo Manchester in early October and we hope to see some of you lovely people there. If you're in Burbank, CA though...you have no reason not to get yourself down to Game Realms on 9/9/16!

Space Channel 5 Coming To VR Devices

This article has been updated in light of new information becoming available. We already know about Rez being given the VR treatment in preparation for the PS VR launch in October...but how about Space Channel 5? You may notice that question mark in the title to this post (article was originally titled 'Space Channel 5 Coming To PlayStation VR?'), and that's because we're not totally sure if this is a hoax, so please take this with a pinch of salt. According to this NeoGAF thread, a Space Channel 5 VR demo will be shown at Tokyo Game Show 2016 (running from 15th to 17th September) and a link takes you to a fairly convincing teaser site.

An Interview With Pierre Santino - The Dreamcast Barber

It took us over a year, with countless emails and tweets and hours of internet searching. But we finally did it, we found The Barber. The full story is documented in this series of articles:

• In Search Of The Barber: Part One
• In Search Of The Barber: Part Two
• In Search Of The Barber: Part Three

We know how the tl;dr (too long, didn't read) modern internet works though, so the abridged version is this: a guy played a barber in a Dreamcast commercial. He was the face of the console in Europe and his image was everywhere for a few months in late 1999 and early 2000...then he simply disappeared. No record of his name, or who he was left anywhere on the promotional materials, and internet searches turned up nothing. His identity could have been lost to the digital mists of internet lore...that is until The Dreamcast Junkyard stepped in and decided to find out who he was. If you've been following this whole saga you'll know how we did it (and the assistance we had from the wider Dreamcast community), but if not I urge you to read the previous In Search Of The Barber articles to get a full appreciation for how mammoth a task this has been.

This photo is from Pierre's private collection and has never been published before.

Anyway, it's all come to this. We have found him. His name is Pierre Santino and he is alive and well living and working in France. An actor and comedian with an extensive portfolio of work spanning 40 years, Pierre was only too happy (and possibly a little surprised) when we showed him the previous articles documenting our search for him. As he is French and speaks very little English, we enlisted the help of Arnaud Bonnet (author of 1000 Jeux Vidéo, 1000 Anecdotes published by Pix'n Love Editions) who acted as an interpreter. Huge thanks go to Arnaud for his assistance in the translation of this interview from English, to French...and back again. Enough from me though. Let us turn our attention to the man of the moment - The Barber himself, Mr Pierre Santino...

Power Stone Clone Lastfight Announced For XB1 & PS4

Back in May, we reviewed the excellent Power Stone clone Lastfight, and awarded it a very respectful 7.5/10. We praised its gameplay, style and ability to invoke fond memories of Power Stone, but criticised its lack of content. Check it out here.

At the time of review, the game was a Steam exclusive, but there's good news for all you console peasants out there: the game is making its way over to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 later this month.

DC Light Gun Games On Modern Lucuda Tuv...LCD TV

Finally!

This story has been doing the rounds on social media as of late, so it may seem like old hat, but for those who aren't wasting their pitiful existence on this planet posting selfie or pick-up photos and fishing for likes from strangers, this may come as a pleasant surprise to you.

It's a problem many of us faced around a decade ago; plugging in our Dreamcast light gun with the intention of caning through a bit of House of the Dead 2 perhaps months or even years after trashing the old tube TV in favour of a modern flat screen, only to find that wherever we point the damn thing, all that's accomplished is reloading full clips of ammo over and over until we die before even getting the chance to meet G over there.

Being able to enjoy lightgun games again has become one of the many motivations in tracking down a CRT for many, but it isn't exactly the most practical solution for those without the space, or with a wife who no doubt can't stand the idea of a fat grey eyesore in her carefully designed Zen inspired living room. And while you can use a Gamegear, it seems that there may finally be a more practical solution...sorry Caleb!

Shenmue III Kickstarter Update August 2016

It's all been a bit quiet on the Shenmue III front recently. Apart from the odd snarky comment I've heard on various podcasts about how shit it's inevitably going to be* when it finally drops, there's been precious little information forthcoming from Ys Net's headquarters in Japan. That changed today though, with a Kickstarter update titled 'From the Dev Room.' The update only really consists of a short video where several developers are interrupted and asked to show the camera what they're working on though, so don't get too excited.

One guy shows that he's working on a recreation of the river jumping section from Shenmue II and demonstrates some wireframe animations of Ryo trying his best not to get his trainers wet; while a colleague shows off a section in which Ryo is avoiding being crushed by falling rocks. I've taken a few screen grabs of the video and dotted them around here, but you should probably go and check out the video on the Kickstarter page too. Oh, and donate while you're there if you haven't already.

Developer Interview: Tom Napior (guacasaurus_mex)

Tom Napior hit the gaming headlines earlier in 2016 when he successfully ported Flappy Bird to the humble VMU. Later, also under his Instagram name of 'guacasaurus_mex,' he released Street Race, an Outrun-inspired racing game that showed just how capable the tiny memory device could be when squeezed. Most recently though, Tom has been in the spotlight for his attempt to bring Pokémon GO to the VMU, and we thought it was about time we caught up with this talented homebrew developer to see why the VMU holds so much appeal for him...

Street Race features greyscale VMU graphics not seen before.

DCJY: Hi Tom, thanks very much for taking the time out to speak to us. First things first - your Instagram name, guacasaurus_mex...are you a fan of guacamole?

Tom Napior: Haha! I’m a fan of all Mexican food...and dinosaurs, so it seemed like a good fit.

I did wonder. Now we’ve got that cleared up, let's discuss your fantastic endevours with the Dreamcast, and more specifically the VMU. What’s your history with the Dreamcast? Did you have one when they were contemporary hardware?

I sure did! I picked one up back in 2000 from a local game store and have never looked back really. I got Soul Calibur (which to this day is one of my favourite games of all time) and have always been fascinated by the VMU…such a cool idea!

In Search Of The Barber: Part Three - We Found Him

Recently we published the second part of our series in which we've been searching for the identity of the mystery man who fronted the European Dreamcast advertising campaign. There is almost nothing online detailing who this guy was, and considering his face was everywhere during a brief period in late 1999, it drove me to distraction that it was documented nowhere. Until now.

I can't accurately convey how much time I've spent trying to find the actor who portrayed The Barber (you could check out In Search Of The Barber: Part One and Part Two to get an idea, though), but now I'm overjoyed to announce that yes, we've found him. And the way we found him was every bit as interesting as the rest of this whole saga, to be honest - a true tale of the Dreamcast community coming together to overcome insurmountable odds. It goes a little something like this...

DreamPod - Episode 38: Platforming Special Featuring DreamcastGuy

[iTunes][Stitcher][Buzzsprout][UK Podcast Directory][YouTube]

If you'd like to know more about DreamcastGuy's channel, please head over to YouTube and check out his content (or just click here!), or give him a follow on Twitter here. As stated, if there's anything we got wrong or any games we neglected to mention, don't hesitate to contact Mike via email and/or on his personal mobile phone - preferably at around 3am.

I knew I'd seen Sonic's fangs!

Music in this episode is from Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and Super Magnetic Neo. As ever, if you like what you've heard, please feel free to leave us an iTunes review or a thumbs up on our YouTube version - it all helps! Lastly, a huge thanks to all of our lovely Patreon supporters, we love every single one of you.

The Hidden Dreamcast Light Gun Game

How many light gun games are there on the Dreamcast? As I sit here staring at that rhetorical question, I recall about five if memory serves: House of the Dead 2, Confidential Mission, Death Crimson 2, Death Crimson 2 OX, and Virtua Cop 2. But wait. There's actually another I didn't even know about until today: Infogrammes and Pitbull Syndicate's Demolition Racer: No Exit.

Now, you'd be forgiven for thinking I'd had one too many bottles of strong ale before writing this (and you'd be right, in most all cases), but hear me out. Demolition Racer: No Exit is a stock car racing game very much in the vein of PlayStation classic Destruction Derby (we don't mention the Saturn atrocity), and while it looks very pretty I don't particularly like it because of the downright stupid rules in the championship mode. Try as I might, I can't even get past the first couple of races due to the ridiculously random nature of the scoring system - coming first in a race tallies up with damage given to other cars...or something. And there are weapons. Basically, it's a clusterfuck of confusion so I'm just going to leave it there for now.

Anyway, I'm in the process of moving house (for about the 8th time in 3 years) and as I was stacking up my beloved Dreamcast games ready to be boxed, I noticed something funny on the back of the Demolition Racer case:

A 'Light Gun' compatibility icon. Which is very odd, especially considering Sega didn't even release the gun in the USA. That, and Demolition Racer is an NTSC-U exclusive racing game..

In Search Of The Barber: Part Two

Several months ago I published an article here titled In Search Of The Barber. In case you missed it, go here and have a quick scan to familiarise yourself. If you can’t be bothered, allow me to briefly recap the gist of the previous chapter in this seemingly unsolvable missing persons case.

During the early period of the Dreamcast’s brief lifespan in Europe, Sega promoted the console through a series of TV and cinema adverts where multiplayer gaming was pushed as the system’s key unique selling point. I’m sure you’ll recall the whole ‘6 billion players’ controversy. The adverts in question featured two scenarios - one was titled ‘Buoy’ had a load of kids stood on a shoreline trying to hit a buoy with stones; the other was titled ‘Shave’ and involved a group of French foreign legion conscripts having their heads shaved by a trio of military barbers. It was the latter of these two promotional films that was chosen as Sega’s flagship advertising tool and the victorious barber (named Player Two in the advert) was depicted on a host of posters, billboards, in-game leaflets and even on the Dreamarena European online portal.

The Barber. On Dreamarena.

As explained in my previous article on this subject, this guy’s characteristic face, bare chest and distinctive tattoos* were all over the place for the first six months of the Dreamcast’s life - in magazines, on bus stops and even splashed across cinema screens before some of the biggest movies of the time (well, Star Wars Episode 1, anyway). He was literally everywhere. The thing is, there is no record of who he actually is. No credits on the Dreamography VHS tapes given away with pre-orders of the Dreamcast, no crew listings or location photos anywhere on the internet…and believe me - I’ve looked.

What my life now looks like.

Is he an actor? If so, why can’t I find anything else he’s appeared in? Hell, why can’t I find a single image of him anywhere, other than the few uploads of the Dreamcast ‘barber’ picture (most of which have been uploaded by me)? It's this complete erasure or nonexistence of The Barber that is the driving force behind this whole saga, and using the power of the internet I've decided to pick up the case and dig further into the mystery of this bloke's true identity.

The Murky World of White Labels

While I do consider myself to be a collector of all manner of Dreamcast related tat, I’m far from what most people would consider 'hardcore.' I do not have a full complement of any region’s library for instance, and while I do have around 95% of the PAL releases in my collection, I refuse to pay over the odds for the remaining few (mainly shit) titles required to call it a 'full set.' Furthermore, many of the peripherals and consoles I own are unboxed and or in 'used' condition – I generally buy Dreamcast stuff to play with it, examine it, record its existence in an easy to digest manner and upload it here for people to enjoy…or take it to events for other people to play with/destroy and cover in hand slime.

What I'm trying (and failing) to convey is that I'm not one who only collects sealed or mint condition stuff, and I'm not overly precious about stuff being kept in a nuclear bunker where radioactive dust clouds, sunlight or curious hands cannot get to it. Nor am I one who feels he has to collect absolutely everything with a Dreamcast swirl on it...and that's the point I'm meandering toward with this wholly unnecessary, rambling introduction.

One aspect of collecting for the Dreamcast that has barely shown up on my radar until recently is the collection of white labels. I have been aware of the things for as long as I’ve been aware of the Dreamcast itself but collecting these PAL-centric preview discs has never really interested me for some reason. For those who aren’t familiar with white labels, they were special sample versions of Dreamcast games that were predominantly sent out by Sega Europe to the press for preview purposes and – as far as I'm aware – also used in Dreamcast demo pods in stores such as GAME and Electronics Boutique in the UK. As I said, I’ve never really been very interested in collecting these preview discs, but Mike Phelan included a very comprehensive list of them - complete with serial numbers - in our recently outlawed collectors guide (you can still download it for free here); and several friends randomly donated a selection white labels to me over the last few weeks.