Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas once again and to celebrate, here's a little something special from our very own Aaron Foster: a specially drawn comic strip! This is the Junkyard's 11th Christmas and we'd like to thank everyone who continues to visit and support the blog, either through Patreon, downloading the podcast or simply just following and sharing our stuff on social media.

Click for a larger version!

In case you didn't know, Aaron is a professional animator and a damn fine artist too, so we hope the image above raises a smile. You can find Aaron's website and portfolio here and his YouTube channel Lucky Hit here. Go and check them out - you won't be disappointed!

Once again, Merry Christmas from all of us here at the Junkyard - here's to many more!

Sturmwind Available Now, Throwback Edition With Kraken Plushie Coming Soon

As reported here a few days ago, Duranik's Sturmwind is now available to purchase for the tidy sum of €35/£30 at Dragon Box. The game is a re-print of the original Sturmwind released in 2013 and comes on a professionally pressed disc with a full colour manual in a jewel case. As we've said many, many times here at the Junkyard, Sturmwind is a truly stunning shmup and for this price you'd be mad not to snap a copy up. Shipping can be pricey (it added almost another £10 for shipping to the UK), so if you're based in the US you might want to wait a few days for online retailer The Bit Station to open orders. Pre-orders at The Bit Station will run from 23rd December to 6th January, when the games will be sent out to buyers.

We can also exclusively reveal that The Bit Station will be offering a 'Throwback Edition' of Sturmwind, which will ship with extras from the special edition of the game:

Sturmwind Re-release Imminent

Sturmwind is without a doubt one of the finest shmups on the Dreamcast. Actually, scratch that - it's one of the finest games, period. A stunning mix of pre-rendered video backgrounds, highly detailed sprites, awesome visual effects and a killer soundtrack make Duranik's 2013 side scroller a must play title for Sega's little white box of tricks. The only sticking point is that due to the limited release, the game has become something of a rarity and when copies do surface on eBay, sellers can literally charge what they like for it. I've seen standard editions of the game go for over £100 and the special collector's edition can go for anything up to and above £200. It's madness I tells ya. Well, all that nonsense is about to change: Sturmwind is being re-released!

Duranik posted a teaser on their Facebook page yesterday hinting that the release may be imminent and I spoke with lead developer Johannes Graf to get some further information. Johannes confirmed that Sturmwind is indeed being re-released and is currently being shipped to several online retailers in the US and Europe including Dragon Box (who handled the recent re-release of Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles) and The Bit Station, a dedicated US retailer which specialises in homebrew and indie games. As far as the game is concerned, nothing has been changed apart from the removal of copy protection and the cover art has been amended to what you see above.

A Quick Look At Yu Suzuki Game Works

Retro compilations on the Dreamcast are a mixed bag. We recently cast a judgemental eye over Namco Museum and came to the conclusion that while the game selection is great, the lack of any kind of extra content made it feel as if the collection was a rush job - especially when compared to the fantastic PlayStation editions. Prior to that, we looked at Atari Anniversary Edition and Sega Smash Pack...but now shit is about to get real. No more messing about - let's take a quick look at Yu Suzuki Game Works Volume 1.

Released exclusively in Japan at the end of 2001, Game Works is a rather excellent collection of classic arcade games created by the eponymous Yu Suzuki. The package comprises a disc containing 5 Sega arcade classics and a commemorative book that explains the history of the games, the development and the cabinets themselves.

El Charnock Returns!

My continued efforts to get Tom's likeness digitised into a Dreamcast game has been given a huge kick in the pants thanks to the new crowd-funding campaign that started this week. While our chance to shoot Tom in the face in Retro Sumus's game Xenocider was scuppered due to a lack of funds (on both sides), we have a brand new chance to see our Mancunian candidate starring on our favourite little white box of tricks.

Initially, not one, but two of the support tiers for the upcoming indie tactical FPS game In the Line of Fire, gave us the opportunity to see a digitised Tom shoot other people in the face. I was going to focus on the higher tier: Become Gun Cage Manager, which would have seen Mr. Charnock taking a leading role in the game, but some lucky sod has already beat us to it.

You sunk my Battleship!

But fear not, we still have one remaining avenue to get Tom into the game. As of now, there are still 12 spots left for Tom's ugly mug to feature on a support character that will also be available in multi-player. Imagine how cool that would be, we might still get a chance to shoot him in the face...

DreamPod - Episode 44: RadioSEGA WinterFest 2016

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

Once you've listened to/downloaded the episode, be sure to head over to RadioSEGA to enjoy a constant stream of awesome music and original shows. As ever, if you like what you hear please consider leaving us an iTunes review. And if you fancy chucking $1 a month at us for this lovely content feel free to check out our Patreon page. Thanks!

Dreamcast Exclusive Shooter In The Line Of Fire Hits Kickstarter

A few months ago we shared some brand new images of Militia Studios' awesome Dreamcast exclusive tactical first person shooter In the Line of Fire. We were given access to an early build of the first mission, in which a lone police officer must try to prevent bank robbers from escaping with and contents of the vault, pursuing them through the offices and eventually onto the roof of the bank. It wasn't perfect and it needed work, but as an early demonstration of what Militia Studios were trying to achieve, it was nothing short of breathtaking. With graphics comparable to those seen in officially released games like Headhunter, we knew In the Line of Fire was going to be special. Now we all get the opportunity to make this a reality.

In the Line of Fire has finally hit Kickstarter with a full campaign that details all of the features the team at Militia want to include. A lengthy single player mode, squad-based tactical gameplay elements where you control a team of up to four AI teammates, split screen and online multiplayer modes. Additional third person camera modes allow you to 'tag' enemies and then pop out from behind cover to take shots at them, and the final game promises other features such as hacking CCTV controls and being able to issue on the fly commands to your team...the list goes on.

At this point, I know what you're thinking. Not another Dreamcast Kickstarter?! Wait. This is different. It's different because In the Line of Fire is literally built from the ground up as a Dreamcast game. It is not a stretch goal. It started life a Dreamcast game, and will only ever be a Dreamcast game. And for that reason we cannot champion this project enough.