Cancelled Atomiswave Fighter KenJu Discovered

This is only very tenuously related to the Dreamcast, so apologies if it offends your eyes. That said, Ross recently posted an awesome analysis of the Atomiswave here and Sammy's arcade hardware is linked loosely to the Dreamcast and Sega...so I won't lose any sleep over it. What am I on about? Well, it looks as though a long lost Atomiswave arcade fighter has been discovered. As reported on both the Assembler Games forums and hardcore fighting game site Shoryuken, 3D fighter KenJu was in development by Ehrgeiz and Tobal No1 creator DreamFactory before it dropped off the radar and was never seen again. Details on how the game was discovered by collector ShouTime are a little hazy, but we're not really that bothered - it's just cool to see yet another forgotten title come to light.

As you can see from the video, KenJu is aesthetically very similar to Capcom's Project Justice Rival Schools 2, and the stage demonstrated in the clip is uncannily reminiscent of the sports arena seen in the aforementioned high school-based brawler. Twelve interesting characters appear to be available to the player initially, and it's probably safe to assume that more would become playable after meeting certain gameplay milestones. Visuals appear to be pseudo cel-shaded and on the whole it looks to be quite a competent entry into the genre. There doesn't appear to be much information online regarding KenJu or the reasons for the game's cancellation, but we're sure you'll agree it's very cool to see hitherto unknown games still coming to light.

A Quick Look At Rush Rush Rally Racing

Rush Rush Rally Racing. For some reason, every time I think of this game I can't help but say the title in my head to the tune of the Power Rangers theme song. Hopefully, now you'll be the same and my plan for earworm world domination via the medium of indie Dreamcast games will be complete. I'm trying to think of other defunct kids' TV shows that rhyme perfectly with Dreamcast game titles; but I've hit a wall and fear I may have peaked way too soon...but I digress.

Rush Rush Rally Racing is a top down racing game released by Senile Team in 2009, and while I've been aware of the game for ages it's taken me until now to actually acquire a copy and play it. I know, I know...I can only apologise. The fact of the matter is, Rush Rush Rally Racing (henceforth referred to as R4) is one of those indie games that has increased in price/value exponentially since it was released and so I've never really had the funds or inclination to buy a copy for my own collection. That all changed recently when I was perusing a stall of gaming trinkets at Revival Solstice and asked if the seller had any Dreamcast games other than the NTSC-J copies of Blue Stinger and Pen Pen TriIcelon he had adorning the table. He produced R4 and was asking only £20, so I bit his hand off. Not literally you understand, but for that price I couldn't refuse.

That said, I did endure about 20 minutes of buyers remorse as that crisp £20 note was the only cash I had on my person, I desperately needed a drink and the nearest cash point was a good 15 minute walk away from the event. This momentary bout of negative introspection was soon allayed when I slapped my new disc into one of the myriad Dreamcasts I had at the event though, and here's why: Rush Rush Rally Racing is bloody brilliant.

Indie Shooter Xenocider Returns!

Rise from your gwave! You'll no doubt remember Xenocider; the impressive Space Harrier/Sin & Punishment homage from Spanish indie dev Retro Sumus hit Kickstarter earlier in 2016 but was cancelled with days to go when it became apparent that the goal would not be reached. Well, we have some good news: Xenocider is not dead! Far from it in fact, and lead developer Carlos Oliveros has spoken exclusively to The Dreamcast Junkyard to reveal that not only is Xenocider alive and kicking, but the team have completed work on a whole new stage and some new enemy types:

"We simply wouldn't allow ourselves to be so discouraged by a failed Kickstarter as to fully abandon our project. We are still exploring other funding options and alternatives which we will announce soon. In the meantime, we have been working hard on new assets for the game - in our spare time that is - and there's a whole new stage pretty much finished as we speak. Xenocider was simply never gone. And neither is AMEBA, for that matter."

- Carlos Oliveros, Retro Sumus

This is fantastic news as Xenocider was shaping up to be one of the Dreamcast's most promising titles and as the demo showed, the bespoke 3D engine looked like it was going to deliver something new to the scene.

Leona's Tricky Adventures Competition Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered our competition to win a copy of KTX's awesome indie release Leona's Tricky Adventures! We received almost 1000 entries but there were only 5 copies to give away, and the following people were chosen at random using the Gleam competition app:

Carl from Sweden

Andrew from the UK

Sam from the USA

Safi from the USA

Elisabeth from the USA

Not going to lie - I was kinda hoping it would randomly choose five winners from the UK so it wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg to send these all over the planet, but hey ho - such are the risks associated with running the globe's most popular Dreamcast blog! Congratulations to our winners, we hope you enjoy Leona's Tricky Adventures as much as we did (find our huge review and developer interview by clicking the image links below); and also massive thanks to Tamara and KTX Software for supplying these copies of the game to give away. If you weren't lucky enough to win this time, don't worry - there will be more competitions coming in the near future.

Remember, Leona's Tricky Adventures can still be purchased from the official website and on Steam so get over there and support our indie developers!

Expanding the Dreamcast Collection: Part 4 - Atomiswave

“Welcome back to the stage of history.” It's been a long time coming, and for that I can only apologise, but this mammoth article has finally been completed so let's take a look at the fourth system in the Dreamcast family of hardware: the Sammy Atomiswave. Out of all the hardware in the family, the Atomiswave is perhaps the most similar to the Dreamcast on a technical level and was supported by three names in gaming synonymous with the console's library: SNK, Sammy and Sega. With this in mind, if you consider yourself a fan of the Dreamcast, or the Neo Geo for that matter, you’d be doing yourself a great disservice by overlooking it.

Revival Solstice 2016 Show Report

The weekend of the 30th-31st July saw Revival Retro Events' Solstice take over Walsall's Bescott football stadium for the UK's largest dedicated retro gaming event. The Dreamcast Junkyard was there to spread some love for Sega's final console and the event was an outstanding success. It wasn't all about the Dreamcast though, as pretty much every retro system imaginable was on display in the large gaming hall - all fully accessible and available to play. Even extremely rare systems such as the Pippin Atmark and NUON were on offer, and I took the opportunity to experience Marathon on the Bandai/Apple console and Tempest 3000 on the VM Labs hardware.

On the subject of Marathon on the Pippin, it ran way better than I was expecting and had a silky frame rate - far better than Saturn Doom, for example. Those two games were probably the (non-Dreamcast) highlight for me, but there were plenty of arcade machines and pinball machines on offer, and retro consoles going back to the very dawn of gaming were on show.

OutbreakX - Another New Dreamcast Game?

News has reached us via Dreamcast News and the Dreamcast-Talk forums that there might - might - be another new game coming for the Dreamcast. Early shots hint at a 3D platformer with shooter aspects, and looks (to me at least) like the bastard lovechild of Blinx: The Time Sweeper and Gears of War. This is no bad thing, obviously. The game, titled OutbreakX is the work of a solitary programmer who goes by the forum name '111' and as stressed multiple times in the reveal post, is only around 10% complete.

That said, 111 confirms that the current build is running on Dreamcast hardware and is likely to be entered in the recently reported DCJAM 2016 homebrew competition. Also, emo cats are criminally underrepresented on the Dreamcast.