DreamPod - Episode 48 Featuring DC Gaga

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If you'd like to know more about DC Gaga, you can find the main site here, and also find Jamie on Twitter and Facebook. The article on the Dream Library download service is located here, and you can find our previous articles on the Dreameye, Dreamcast karaoke unit and the DC-Free service by clicking on/tapping the various inline links. If you like what you've heard, please consider leaving us an iTune review and as ever, thanks to everyone who donates to our Patreon.

New Xenocider Footage Released By Retro Sumus

Xenocider is a game we've been keeping a close eye on here at the Junkyard, ever since it was first announced by Spanish developer Retro Sumus back in 2015. Initially a Kickstarter-funded Dreamcast title, the Space Harrier/Sin & Punishment homage has gone from strength to strength and lead developer Carlos Oliveros and his highly talented team have been hard at work behind the scenes working on new enemies, levels and boss characters.

Xenocider is rapidly becoming one of the most hotly anticipated new IPs for the Dreamcast, and the latest development diary video dropped recently. In it, Retro Sumus give us a glimpse of a new stage (called Transistor Highway); and a new boss, inspired by none other than Dreamcast classic Rez. Here's the video:

You can still pre-order Xenocider here, and the recent announcement that the game will ship with artwork by DC Comics artist Agustín Padilla makes it an even more enticing prospect than ever.

Readers Share Their Rare & Unusual Dreamcast Items

A couple of years ago, we the writers of this blog shared our collections with the readership and allowed the internet at large to bask in the fuzzy glow of the weird and wonderful items of Dreamcast-related tat we have all accumulated over the years. With that in mind, we thought it was about time that we turned the tables and asked our lovely readers - namely the members of our awesome Facebook group - which odd, strange and unique items they had acquired and added to their Dreamcast collections over the years. And they didn't disappoint.

No, they answered the call with gusto, and I was quite literally flabbergasted at the range of the unique and lesser-spotted items of Dreamcast hardware, software and merchandise (both official and third party) which was offered up for others to gawk at. Some of these items I had no prior knowledge of, and some of them are just downright weird. Others are completely unique and one-of-a-kind pieces of Dreamcast-related history. Forget your standard 'L@@K! R@RE!' eBay listings for copies of Buggy Heat. These items are the real Dreamcast crown jewels. So, without further ado let's embark on a journey into the more obscure annals of Dreamcast collecting...

Quick Look Video: Alice Dreams Tournament

Some of you out there may have started to receive your copy of successful Kickstarter game Alice Dreams Tournament. We'll have a full review coming soon (well, as soon as all of the Dreamcast Junkyard team receive their copies); but in the meantime I decided to take a quick look at the game dropping into mailboxes as I type:

Have you got yours yet? If so, what do you think of this new game? Let us know in the comments or over in our Facebook group.

Review & Emulation Analysis: Breakers

Until very recently, I'd never heard of Breakers. A game that was solely the preserve of Neo-Geo aficionados - and even then those who tended to walk on the more obscure side of the tracks - Breakers is a game that very few outside of the more niche corners of the gaming fraternity will have much affinity with. Released by Visco Games in 1996, the game remained in its native Japan and was never given a western airing, even when the home conversions for the Neo-Geo AES and Neo-Geo CD came around. Breakers is one of those games that unless you know about it, will pass you by.

That's about to change though, as French publishers JoshProd and Rush On Game launch a joint assault on the Dreamcast library with a collection of 5 new or re-issued titles; and the crowning glory amongst this lineup (along with Rush Rush Rally Reloaded) is considered to be Visco's obscure 2D fighter. With little prior knowledge of Breakers on a personal level (a boat I'm sure I crew with plenty of other people), I decided to approach this upcoming release with a three-pronged attack. First, I wanted to give my own opinions on it as somebody who is not au fait with the original games in the Breakers series; to review the sum of the game's parts from the point of view of a newbie to the series with no prior experiences to compare it to. Second, I wanted to get an unbiased opinion on how well the emulation holds up; and third I wanted to get a comparison between this Dreamcast iteration and the original 1996 version of Breakers running on genuine SNK hardware of the era. With this in mind, it's time to settle down with a mug of tea/coffee/vodka for a bloody long article...

Before I continue with this review though, allow me to address the elephant in the room. I'm not an expert when it comes to fighting games, and even less so when it comes to rare and obscure NTSC-J exclusive 2D fighting games for the Neo-Geo. Sure, I own the majority of the King of Fighters series and many, many other Capcom and SNK 2D fighters for the Dreamcast and beyond...but I'm not an expert in the genre. That said, I do enjoy the odd round of digital fisticuffs and I know what makes for a fun and enjoyable gaming experience.

I can clearly appreciate the comical gulf in quality between things like Double Dragon V, Rise of the Robots and Shaq Fu; and games like Marvel Vs Capcom, X-Men: Children of the Atom and Vampire Hunter D. I've sampled the delights of BlazBlue, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, innumerable Street Fighter titles and even stuff like Groove on Fight, Garou and Samurai Shodown. Even though I'm no expert, I feel I'm pretty well versed in the genre and I know what differentiates the wheat from the chaff. So with that in mind, let's jump in and give this Breakers thing a good seeing to...

Metropolis Street Racer: The Development Diaries

I do occasionally find myself browsing old websites via the Wayback Machine, and they usually tend to be websites linked in some way to the Dreamcast. Whenever I flick through the manual of an old game and spot a URL, I have an urge to just go and have a look at the contemporary online presence the developer or publisher had. I know I've waffled on about my affection for the Wayback Machine on multiple occasions but there's just something so fascinating about trawling the long forgotten sites of old, sites that date from before the internet was as ubiquitous as it is today. I mean, even fridges and dishwashers can connect to the internet these days, but back in the early 2000s just getting online was an arduous process - even if you had a Dreamcast. 

Anyway, due to my insatiable thirst for the widely forgotten, I found myself looking at the Bizarre Creations website when I noticed a tab for a development diary. Weirdly, it is now only accessible by using the 'console friendly' (read: Dreamcast compatible) version of the site, but upon clicking it I was met with a fascinating insight into the development process of one of my favourite Dreamcast games. Here, buried in time being read by precisely nobody was a glimpse into the past. Anecdotes about nights out on the town with other Dreamcast developers of the era, office politics and even some fascinating tales of pranks played in the MSR engine by the programmers (I'd kill to see the 'MSR with rabbits' that's referred to!). I had never read any of this before, and I thought it was worth preserving and sharing with like minded fans of Metropolis Street Racer. 

Naturally, what makes this even more poignant is that Bizarre Creations, even after the critical and commercial success of later titles such as Project Gotham, no longer exists. So, read on and get ready to be whisked back to 1998 and the inner sanctum of Bizarre Creations' Liverpool offices...

Expanding the Dreamcast Collection Part 5: The Sega System SP

It’s been an interesting journey, and one that I for one have certainly learnt a lot from, but unfortunately this won’t quite be the send off befitting a series of systems that once dominated the arcade scene for over a decade. You see, rather than going out with a bang, the Dreamcast family of hardware ended with a silent wet fart - a shart, even -  from a once great arcade behemoth. Hardly riveting stuff, but for the sake of completion and bringing this barrel-scraping topic to a close, let’s take a quick look at the not-so-almighty System SP.

The System SP. Picture taken from www.system16.com - a great resource for
all things arcade related, so check it out.

Now how’s that for an opening to get your attention? How could you possibly resist the temptation to expand your ever increasing knowledge of pointless Dreamcast trivia? So gather round and prepare to be bored to death! You - yes you, the person whose time would be far better spent learning to play an instrument or practicing that language you’ve intended to learn for the past decade.

This is how the Dreamcast ended up. A sad/hilarious sight indeed.

Where was I again? Oh yes, the System SP. Time to share a few useless tidbits about the most boring, pointless and least interesting system in the Dreamcast family. Well, we had to wrap it up somehow...