The Dreamcast History Project

Yesterday I stumbled across this archive on Sega's Japanese website that lists every single game released for the Dreamcast in Japan by release date with box art, so being the obsessive compulsive I am, I decided to save every single one of the 500 and something front covers. Then this morning I decided to hunt down this online program I saw used for something about the history of animation called Dipity, which lets you create a full interactive timeline with images, info, video etc. It's really simple to use and all of today I've been working on a timeline of the Dreamcast's many game releases, starting with for now all the Japanese ones which I have these cover images and release dates for.

Consider this my late present for the Dreamcast's 10th birthday. It's a work in progress but there is already quite a few entries there (all of 1998, most of 1999, some of 2000 and most of the latter years), mainly just showing the box art and on some a wikipedia link, but I plan to take the descriptions from the long dead Dreamcast Junkyard wiki and add them to the games info too. This may take quite a while so i might need some help with it, especially for hunting down the English language names for a lot of the games (most are on segagagadomain, at least). I'll see how I do.

So try it out, I've embedded it above. The further you zoom (I find the 1 month setting is the best), the more you'll see. There's also a flipbook which lets you look at the covers much bigger, and a list, it's all very clever how it works. It really does show just how quickly all our favorite DC games were crammed onto the market, with many weeks featuring about 3 great games at a time.

Credit Crunch?

Having read the quite spectacular Dreamcast tribute in the most recent edition of the wonderful Games TM magazine, I've got a little nostalgic for my little white box. That doesn't mean I've been playing on it, lord no! The ubiquitous 360 has killed off my regular excursions onto the Dreamcast in quite an alarming way.

Maybe the arrival of Dux will turn me back (Wind and Water Puzzles has not prised me away from GTA IV or Fallout 3 recently and maybe it's silly to put those games on the same page?)

However, I dabbled on the old eBay to check out the prices of Lack Of Love. You know 'LOL'???

It was the progenitor of Spore, an emotional 'evolution simulator' sound-tracked by that dude from the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Apparently a forgotten Dreamcast 'classic', it could have been yet another Dreamcast revelation that I probably would never have played.


But when I checked out the price it was asking between £60-£100+. Well you know what I thought? Fuck that!!! I want a new Shenmue, Crazy Taxi or Headhunter. Scratch that, I want some clever mod /emu type to deliver me Blue stinger 2!!!

Rant over, I promise. The point I was about to make was that I stuck around on the Dreamcast section of eBay and stumbled across what I considered to be a 'must have' purchase. In a nutshell I discovered two brand new, boxed up VMUs for £3 + postage.

When factored in a £1 donation to the NSPCC, plus my complimentary festive Paypal voucher of four delicious pounds off any purchase on eBay, the whole package cost me £2 (inc postage).

That's a sum total of £1 each for two boxed up, coloured, see-through US VMUs. Only two years ago, I payed £15 for ONE. Point being, now that we are in full on credit crunch recession, (plus the 'current gen' has truly arrived), there are many, many sweet Dreamcast deals to be had...)

The batteries alone (to power a VMU) cost more than I paid online. Get surfing people and let me know what lovely bargains you have secured!

Dr. Robotnik still plays his Dreamcast

Look at that picture. Now look closer. Can you see a little white box of awesomeness? Okay, I'll help, it's right next to the old doctor's finger. The screen is from the new Sonic Unleashed and was spotted by the good folks over at Sega Nerds.

By the way, about the game, I have it and I've played a couple of stages already (one of each type of gameplay) and let me tell you, so far this looks like the best Sonic game that came out after Sonic Adventure 2. Surprising, I know, but really, unless something really disappoints me in the next stages, this is going to be a blast to play. The speed stages are simply made of awesomeness, the town stages are pretty much like they were in SA1, only a little less annoying, and the infamous werehog levels are...not so bad, actually. They're a little tedious, yes, but they add variety to the game and keep the speed levels fresh. Besides, even the SA games were not made of speed levels only.

Like I heard someone saying recently, the problem with a lot of people nowadays is that they don't even know what they want in a Sonic game anymore, and while Unleashed is not its best title yet, it's definitely a huge step forward in the right direction. It doesn't even compare to the disgrace that was the first Sonic game on the 360 and PS3...

Another excuse to pretend the DC2 is coming..

I'm sure you saw that Japanese project where someone had crammed a PC into a Sega Saturn, and if you browse about other blogs you have probably seen this already too but whatever...here is the same crazy bloke with a PC crammed into a Dreamcast. It even has a Blu-Ray drive!

It's quite amazing how this guy has managed to squeeze so such into the Dreamcast's shell. It must of been tricky enough with the Saturn, but the Dreamcast is mighty compact! The innards are insane!

Look at all those connections up it's backside! I sure would love to get a PC this compact and good looking, rather than a giant bulky block, mine of which is currently getting repaired as the darn thing decided to stop turning on.

And just to make sure it doesn't set on fire after five minutes it has a huge-arse fan in the bottom. I take it this means the system has to be layed on it's side when in use.

The controller ports are now USB ports. How cute. Yep, you could put me down for one of these! I'd get it emulating the previous Dreamcast, and scribble a "2" onto the logo.