First Screens Of New Dreamcast Shooter Released

Hold on to your hats folks - it looks like there's another new Dreamcast game on the horizon. Not only do we have SLaVE, Elysian Shadows, Alice Dreams Tournament, Redux 2 and Hypertension to look forward to - there's an as yet unnamed shooter coming as well...and it looks pretty amazing.

This news comes from the DCEmulation forums (and I was notified of this by long-time supporter of the Dreamcast scene Pcwzrd13), but it appears that a talented two-man team has been working on a spectacular-looking new shooter that employs a game engine built specifically with the Dreamcast in mind. In the forum thread (you can read it here), lead developer PH3NOM explains that he can't give too much away due to an NDA signed with Goat Store but I think you'll agree that these shots (and video below) are very impressive.

DreamPod - Episode 47

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Music in this episode comes from Trizeal. You can read more about the Nintendo/Sega story here. Find out more about Rush Rush Rally Reloaded and Breakers here. You can discover more about Alice Dreams Tournament here. Once again, we appreciate the support from our awesome Patrons. If you'd like to donate $1, please find our Patreon here. If you like what you've heard please feel free to leave us a review at iTunes, and if you'd like to join the Facebook group you can find us here.

DreamPod - Episode 32

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Musical interludes in this episode are supplied by Metropolis Street Racer and the UK and US Dreamcast advertising campaigns. The Xenocider Kickstarter can be found here, and the Alice Dreams article can be found here. If you'd like to read the Eurogamer article from ex-DC-UK editor Keith Stuart, go here. Our Patreon is here (feel free to pledge $1 where you can!), and if you can find it in your heart to leave us an iTunes review we'd very much appreciate it!

The Dreamcast Junkyard's New Year's Resolutions for 2021

Happy New Year! It's 2021 at last and we can finally put what has been an incredibly tough year for everyone firmly behind us. As is tradition straight after Christmas, New Year's resolutions start flying about around how you're going to eat better, workout more and save your money. But not here at the Junkyard! All we're interested in is what promises we're all going to make towards our favourite white box.

We'll kick things off with recently anointed Father of the Junkyard, Tom who has lots more lovely Dreamcast content planned for us this year:

"I guess my main resolution for 2021 would be to try to get back to being more prolific when it comes to creating articles and video content for the Junkyard. 2020 was a bit of a weird one, as even though working from home initially gave more time to spend on content creation, work stress really ramped up and sucked the creativity out of me in a big way. Spending all day at a computer and then having the prospect of doing the same in the evenings really stopped appealing after a few weeks and my motivation suffered. I'm hoping that 2021 will herald a return to some kind of normality and allow for us all to have a better work/life balance; no longer feeling like the days are one long workday after the other with no respite."

Next up is friend of the Junkyard, Dreamcast developer and creator of the wonderful Dreamcast Now service, Luke "Kazade" Benstead:

"Err resolutions... I guess actually finish and publish my first Dreamcast game (Swirling Blades), but also make more time to play Dreamcast games with my daughter. I'd also love to add an official Sega branded fishing controller to my collection. Finally, give Dreamcast Now a refresh, it's getting on a bit now!"

A new fishing rod is on the horizon for Kazade.

Junkyard staffer Lewis wants to get more involved with the ever expanding Dreamcast indie scene:

"My Dreamcast resolution for next year is to buy and play more indie games. For the longest time, the only Dreamcast indie game I've owned has been Fruity. I don’t know why, I just happened across it one year and now I own it. It wasn’t until I got involved with the Junkyard that I started hearing about the plethora of current and upcoming indie releases for the system. I’ve always been solely focused on collecting the official releases, but with the hype around the Dreamcast being a “current gen” system as of late, I felt that I can’t miss out on being part of its current renaissance. I ordered a copy of Alice Dreams Tournament the other day after it was recommended in our DCJY Advent Calendar Twitter series, and look to get more in 2021. I’ll also be looking out for Kickstarters and other opportunities to support the Dreamcast indie scene!"

Next up is DreamcasticChannel owner, Dreamcast streamer and all-round good egg, pcwzrd13:

"My New Year's resolution is to beat Super Magnetic Neo. I've attempted it several times in the past and given up, but this time I mean it! This game will not get the best of me! I've beaten some of the hardest games in existence, including but not limited to Contra, Contra: Hard Corps, Ninja Gaiden, and Red Dog: Superior Firepower! I've even conquered a Spelunky hell run! Gosh dang nabit, I can do this! I may take out a few Dreamcast's in fits of rage but luckily I have plenty of spares... Of course I'm kidding. I would never harm a Dreamcast, but I will beat Super Magnetic Neo! Mark my words!"

Super Magnetic Neo, one of the DC's toughest games?

For Kev, this year is all about racking up the hours actually playing his Dreamcast:

"In 2020 I significantly cut back my spending on all games and Dreamcast ones in particular, however, my one big outlay was for a GDEMU Dreamcast, whilst I have been enjoying this I haven’t used it as much as I would like, so my 2021 goal is to try and play at least one hour of Dreamcast a week, particularly as that GDEMU machine came preloaded with a stack of games that I have never played, including some of the higher places titles from the DCJY Top 200 games list."

As for me, 2021 will be about ticking off a couple of games that have been on my backlog for a while:

"My Dreamcasting goal for 2021 is to finally get around to playing two games that I can't believe I've managed to go twenty years without playing. The first one is the rather bizarre Pen Pen Triicelon. An often forgotten launch game, Pen Pen (as it was titled in Europe), was something that I thought looked gorgeous back in the day, but not something I wanted to play. It's time to make amends. The second game is Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future. When I was younger, I loved Ecco on the Game Gear and always thought of that dolphin as an equal to Sonic as the SEGA mascot of the 90s. The Dreamcast sequel looks outstanding and has always been a game I've wanted to play, but never got around to."

Defender of the Future will be my first Ecco experience since the Game Gear.

And there we have it. What about you? What's your Dreamcast New Year's Resolution? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter.

New Dreamcast Game Xenocider Hits Kickstarter With Playable Demo

As if you needed reminding, we've been closely following the development of Space Harrier/Sin & Punishment homage Xenocider for some time now. Coming from Spanish developer Retro Sumus, the game represents something of a leap forward for indie games on the Dreamcast as it features a fully polygonal engine built from the ground up for Sega's hardware. The good news is that the Kickstarter project to fund the final development and physical release of Xenocider has now been approved and gone live so it's up to us - the Dreamcast community - to get behind it and ensure it reaches the funding goal. There are a range of backer tiers, and as is the norm each will yield a different reward depending on the amount of money you pledge.

The goal stands at $92,000 in order to get Xenocider fully funded and the higher backer tiers feature such perks as having your own face transplanted into the game as a stage boss, bespoke models of the main protagonist Xara, and even limited edition customised Dreamcast consoles! Perhaps the most interesting part of this Kickstarter though, is that Retro Sumus isn't happy with simply showing potential backers what the game looks like. No, you can actually download a fully playable demo of Xenocider and play it on either PC, Mac...or Dreamcast.

Senile Team Teases New Dreamcast Game

I can't keep up with all these new Dreamcast releases. First we had the announcement about Rush Rush Rally Reloaded and Breakers et al; and then there's the imminent release of Alice Dreams Tournament and the impending Xenocider from our good friends at Retro Sumus...and now we have news of yet another brand new Dreamcast game. Do you ever wake up from a strange dream thinking that you might still be asleep because you feel weird? No, me neither...but I thought I should add some kind of cliché because that's what the mainstream cool kids do.

Anyway, the as-yet-unnamed title again comes courtesy of Senile Team, but it categorically isn't the mythical Age of the Beast. As Senile Team head honcho Roel van Mastbergen explains in his recent post over at the developer's website:

"First I have to get one thing out of the way: it's not Age of the Beast. In case you didn't know, Age of the Beast was a project we started soon after the release of our firstborn, the moddable beat 'em up engine called Beats of Rage. But we stepped into the same traps as so many other indie developers - we announced it prematurely and watched it grow over our heads. I suppose this is a natural part of growing up for a game dev. It has certainly taught us a lot."

- Roel van Mastbergen, Senile Team

Age of the Beast never came to fruition but that's not to say work didn't forge ahead, and Roel goes as far as sharing some previously unseen sprite work with us. That first image below is just something I created myself from individual frames from the animated GIF on the Senile Team site because (full disclosure) the archaic technology keeping this site together can't cope with animated GIFs:

I'm sure you'll agree it's quite impressive and looks like it could give Guardian Heroes a run for its money. However, that's all water under the bridge. A new title is coming to the Dreamcast and so far Senile Team are being very coy with details. Indeed, Roel has only released a single image:

What could this new game be? A shadow puppet simulator? Personally, I think shadow puppetry is underrepresented on the Dreamcast...but I'm pretty sure it won't be a shadow puppetry simulator. Damn you Senile Team, damn you. Anyway, we'll be sure to keep you updated on this new game and hopefully we'll be able to shed more light on future releases in a developer interview very soon!

Senile Team now have a Facebook page too - go give them a like!

DreamPod - Episode 16

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Make sure you check out Fruit'Y, Saber Rider, Volgarr the Viking, Alice Dreams Tournament, Ghost Blade and the DreamConn after listening to this awesome episode! If you like what you hear, please consider giving us a review on iTunes.

3 New Dreamcast Games You May Have Missed

There are loads of new Dreamcast games in development at the moment, and most of them we've been keeping an eye on. Xenocider, Elysian Shadows, SLaVE, Alice Dreams Tournament, Ameba and In The Line Of Fire (more exclusive info coming on that very soon, folks!) all look fantastic and if nothing else show off the breadth and depth of indie development on the Dreamcast. That said, there are a few more smaller projects on the go that may have slipped under your radar, and we thought it was high time they got some attention.

Hermes
Coming from prolific indie developer and publisher Retroguru, Hermes is a 'run and jump' game in a similar vein to Sqrxz. Sqrxz, apart from having an unpronounceable name (unless you're a Klingon) is a side scrolling platformer where you control a little rabbit-looking creature and must jump over gaps and avoid enemies...and die. Lots. It's like the Dark Souls of platformers and revels in its difficulty and frustration levels, and it looks like Hermes may follow this template.

From the PD Roms article on Hermes:

"Retroguru of Giana’s Return and Sqrxz fame are heavily working on their new game Hermes. In this Jump’n’Run you must chase a chicken to get your stomach filled with delicious meat. The game is sort of anti-vegetarian and features a doubtful sense of humor. As all Retroguru games, it’s expected to see this game on several other platforms than just Sega’s Dreamcast."

- Retroguru

There's no release date for Hermes just yet, but you can bet your bottom dollar it'll have you pulling your hair out in the very near future. Going off past Retroguru releases like Fruit'Y, it'll probably be cheap as chips, too.

Developer Interview: Yuan Works

Yuan Works wowed the gaming community in 2007 with the release of their first indie game Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles. A charming mix of tile-based puzzling, role playing and mini games, Wind and Water blew many away with its outstanding pixel art visuals, catchy music and cutting sense of humour. The game went on to be a massive hit on the Dreamcast as well as the other platforms it graced, and recently received a re-print through publisher Dragonbox Shop.

We've documented our love and admiration for Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles many, many times here at The Dreamcast Junkyard and fellow Sega Network site Dreamcast Hub recently published a review of the game. We wanted to go a bit deeper though and find out more about Yuan Works, the developer behind one of the Dreamcast's most highly regarded indie gems; and so we got together to interrogate them about the history of Wind and Water, the future of Dreamcast indie dev and to ask if they know the identity of the elusive Dreamcast barber...

DCJY: First off - thanks very much for taking the time to talk to us and the Dreamcast community at large! Could you tell us a little bit about Yuan Works? Who are you and how did Yuan Works start as a developer?

Yuan Works: We are an independent game company founded by brothers Yuan-Hsi and Yuan-Hao Chiang. Although we have received help from others before, 90% of the work we do was pretty much done fully by ourselves. Yuan-Hsi is in charge of the art, aesthetics, music and sound, while Yuan-Hao focuses on programming and testing, as well as other parts of design (think website, manual). As for the gameplay and direction, we worked together by designing a concept and sending it back to the drawing board as many times as we needed. We grew up with all kinds of classic games, which inspired us to create our own.

Small fact about us: We are half Costa Rican, half Taiwanese and in Chinese culture, siblings and cousins sometimes share the first character of the name — in our case, Yuan. Yuan-Hsi is better known as 'Yuan' while Yuan-Hao is better known as 'Hao,' which can get very confusing at times.

20 Years Of Dreamcast: The Past, Present & Future

It's hard to believe that the Dreamcast has been with us now for two whole decades. Twenty years since that November day back in 1998 when Sega finally unleashed its successor to the Saturn on the world. I can't recall a console launch prior to the Dreamcast launch where fever pitch was at such a level, and the initial reports - at least the ones I read in magazines, being a young oik at the time - all pointed to a system that heralded the dawn of a new age in gaming.

The Dreamcast reveal at The Sega New Challenge Conference 1998

An age of arcade perfection in home ports, and one which ushered in the widespread adoption of online console functionality. As the Dreamcast reaches this milestone, we thought it would be appropriate to celebrate the coming of age of the system with the a brief look at the past, the present and the future of the Dreamcast scene. Happily, this will not include the coming of three ghosts, and will not include one of those ghosts having two small children under his coat. Also, you're well within your rights to feel like a bonafide old git when it sinks in: yes, the Dreamcast really is twenty.

The Past
I think at this point most people are pretty well versed in the history of the Dreamcast. As alluded to earlier, it was launched on 27th November 1998 in Japan, and the following year in the rest of the world. Initial sales were strong, and the system had an air of technological prowess about it. Graphics were far ahead of the console competition at the time, and in some cases superior to what PC gamers were enjoying too. But it wasn't just about the graphical capabilities; as the hardware too was new, fresh and exciting. The VMU in particular turned the humble memory card into a standalone console in its own right, and the controller, while it still to this day splits opinion was interesting, with its analogue triggers and aperture for a second screen of sorts. And of course, the modem that came packaged with the console as standard (apart from some very early editions) opened the door to a whole new way of playing on consoles - against people over the internet.

Eager gamers spy a delivery of Dreamcasts on the morning of the launch

The modem also offered access to the Dreamcast's Dricas service, which was an online portal designed to allow Dreamcast owners to communicate, earn loyalty points and even see on a primitive map where other gamers were located. All of these services are pretty much the norm in today's climate, but back in 1998 these online options were a huge deal. Of course, we now know how the whole party turned into a bit of a shit show after the initial wave of euphoria, and the Dreamcast wasn't long for this world as a fully-supported hardware platform.

The utterly boring debates still rage to this day about why the console failed, and why Sega decided to ditch the console after a relatively short period in the west at least (the last official game was released for the Dreamcast in 2007 in Japan); but the main reason is that many people were more interested in the PlayStation 2 and waited for Sony's new machine rather than buy a Dreamcast. Yes, there are boring debates about software support from certain publishers, and there are boring debates about the ease with which games could be pirated and the lack of a DVD player...but the main reason is that the PlayStation 2 came along and stole the Dreamcast's thunder. It happened, let's all move on.

Three Indie Games I'd Love to See on the Dreamcast

The other day I read an interesting article over on Kotaku (yes, yes I know) that documents the creation of a new football (soccer) game by an indie developer who has never played a football game. Furthermore, he doesn't even know the rules of the sport and has pretty much guessed how football 'works' through hearsay and supposition. It's a really interesting concept, and the resulting interpretation of the beautiful game - now titled Behold the Kickmen - looks like it's shaping up to be the best thing to happen to the football genre since Konami thought Goal Storm was worth reinvestigating.

The developer's name is Dan Marshall, and he's a BAFTA-winning indie developer. Earlier today I cheekily asked him via Twitter when a Dreamcast version of Behold the Kickmen was coming:

Kickmen for Dreamcast: confirmed.

He didn't give a definitive answer (although I'll settle for the 'like' he graciously afforded my stupid tweet), but this got me thinking. Since Volgarr the Viking suddenly appeared out of nowhere in 2015, what other cool indie games would it be amazing to see make the leap to the Dreamcast? Obviously, a lot of indie games these days are built to run on modern platforms and so some of them probably wouldn't be possible on the Dreamcast (stuff like Broforce makes even a PS4 shudder, for example), but this is just a fun little look at some of the titles I'd give my right arm to have ported onto Sega's little box. Well, maybe not my right arm as I'd then have difficulty holding the controller...but you get the idea.

Review: Hermes

2017 is fast becoming a bumper year for new Dreamcast releases, and may well take the crown for most productive year for commercially released indie titles since the demise of the platform we all love so much. Not only do we have JoshProd porting classics to the console, Orion bringing us Escape 2042 and several highly anticipated titles on the horizon, but we now also have the second Dreamcast offering from Retroguru (who released the fun puzzler Fruit'Y a couple of years ago) and Dragon Box Shop. Hermes is a little 8/16-bit inspired run and jumper that opened for pre-orders a couple of months ago, and has now been received without much fanfare by those who purchased it.

Hermes sees you play the role of the title character, a French chef who has an almost unhealthy appetite for some grilled chicken. But rather than take a trip down to the nearest supermarket (which wouldn't have made a very good game - let's be honest. Bit short. Still more fun than Spirit of Speed though...); our Gallic hero does what every red-blooded meat eater who values good food would do, and that's slaughter the chicken himself.

If video games have taught me anything, it's that the slaughtering of animals usually involves jumping on platforms, avoiding snails and risking agonising death all in pursuit of the ultimate nutritious goal, and that is exactly what happens in Hermes. The chicken, unsurprisingly not keen on becoming the next gastronomic experience for our eponymous hero, decides to leg it, leading Hermes on a merry dance to chase down what is fast becoming a poorly chosen source of nourishment.

Developer Interview: KTX Software

The first Dreamcast game of 2016 - Leona's Tricky Adventures - is on sale now and currently making its way to longtime supporters who pre-ordered the game way back in 2013. The game's developer, KTX Software, graciously accepted our invitation for an interview to talk about the release, and we got a chance to sit down (ok, exchange emails, but sit down sounds more professional so just go with it) with the company's CEO Thomas Musal, and Chief Technical Officer Robert Konrad.

It's out now! Go buy it!

DCJY: Tell us a bit about KTX Software, who are the people behind the scenes? Is it a one person band or a team? How did you come together to work on Leona?

KTX is a subsidiary of European company SyA, which is basically an agency working on graphical products for more than 30 years, based in Spain since 2005 and represented in UK and Germany. At the end of 2009 there was a meeting with respect to a German software project when it was decided to create a department for software development at SyA.

A Look Inside The Junkyard

We spend a large part of our time here at the Junkyard bringing all the Dreamers out there the latest news, opinions and articles on our beloved little white box. Whether it be long thought lost games, articles on every element of the Dreamcast that you'd ever wish to have (and some you probably didn't!), collectors guides, an award nominated podcast, interviews with the best DC indie developers out there; you name it, we try to cover it.

But when we're not letting our creative juices flow, the staff here at the 'Yard can often be found building up our own collections. We're a varying bunch, covering 4 continents, and our own collecting goals are somewhat different – whether it be feeding the compulsion to finish a full set, attempting to expand on the Dreamcast family with arcade hardware and software, or just enjoying the thrill of the hunt and finding 10 copies of Spirit of Speed 1937 in a charity shop; we all have different aims and ambitions with our Dreamcast indulgences. And whilst we talk about the console a lot, it's occurred to us that we haven't shared our own collections – at least not for a while. With new members now aboard the Junkyard train, it seems the right time to share our own little corners of Dreamcast heaven.

Oh, and we want to show off a little. There's nothing wrong with that, right?

So without further ado, The Dreamcast Junkyard presents...a look inside the Junkyard!

Upcoming Dreamcast Indie releases - 2021 and beyond!

We're quite lucky to be Dreamcast fans at the moment, living through what feels like a renaissance for the machine -  with Sega giving a little bit of merchandise love to the machine, a proliferation of hardware mods that allow access to older titles, full HDMI support, new controllers, a growing collection of Dreamcast related literature, ports of Atomiswave arcade titles, and an ever impressive indie library. There's a remarkable amount of activity around a machine which is approaching 23 years of age, and we here at the Junkyard are embracing it with a smile on our face, a VMU in our pocket, and a dwindling bank account as we welcome the second coming of our digital dream box. And long may it continue!

The year 2021 is set to be the biggest - by some way - year for indie releases in the systems history though. There is a quite staggering number of titles on their way - more than 30 by some counts - and a fairly large number of those will be in our hands sooner, rather than later. Whilst most of you will have already backed the titles you've seen, there's a good chance some may have slipped you by, or maybe you've just not been aware of the tremendous indie barrage about to assault the console. Fear not, for we're hopefully going to set that straight today.

Before we list all the indie titles on their way, we want to make a couple of observations. This list only includes titles that are set for a physical release. That will preclude some of the homebrew software being developed, and of course won't touch on any ports being developed. We're also not going to include anything which is *only* based on rumours. As you can imagine, we have heard several of these! Furthermore, expect some *big* announcements of titles in the coming months - we can't say anything about them at the moment (we're such teases), but this article will be updated as new titles are announced!

On with the list!

Alice Sisters

Published by JoshProd - set for release early 2021

The first of numerous JoshProd titles in this list, Alice Sisters is a follow up to previous indie platformer Alice's Mom's Rescue, a quite charming little game from prolific previous indie developer Orion. Like the original, this appears to be a 2D platformer, but with the interesting addition of co-op mechanics. Each player guides one of the sisters (or a single player can switch between them) through a promised 28 stages, each using different abilities to combat the games puzzles. 4 game modes are also promised, and screenshots show a charming, colourful world, very much in the style of Orion's previous titles.

A DC release was hinted at in the summer of 2019, but little was revealed for this cross-platform release (a Steam and Mega Drive/Genesis release are also on the cards), but the trailer dropped by JoshProd in February 2021 has the game running and looking as charmingly fun as I hoped it would. I'm looking forward to this one, a proven developer, a genre we've not seen much of, and an intriguing co-op mode which could be very enjoyable indeed.

You can pre-order the PAL version here, the US version here and the Japanese version here.

You can also download the PC version of the game from Orion's itch.io page here.

Andro Dunos 

Published by JoshProd - set for release September 2021

Whilst Pixelheart / JoshProd made a big deal about the release of a brand new sequel, going as far as presenting a special event on Youtube for it's launch, the pending release of the original Andro Dunos went a little under the radar. It's perhaps not surprising though that this early 90's horizontal shooter is making it's way to the Dreamcast. It'd been rumoured for months, the acquisition of Visco's library by the publishers made it an obvious choice, and for many DC players, they've been enjoying the game via emulation for some time anyway. A decent, colourful example of the genre, it's become a minor cult favourite with some fans, and certainly won't be out of place in the plentiful supply of indie shooters the system is home too. There are possibly a few issues regarding how the emulation (presuming it will be played via emulation, like other Neo Geo ports from JoshProd) will work, and it's own sequel is now taking much of the attention away from this release, but it's a welcome addition to the library.

You can pre-order the PAL version here, the US version here and the Japanese version here.

The Top 25 Dreamcast Indie Games... Voted by You! (2024 Edition)

At the beginning of the year, we put the call out to the community to vote for their favourite indie releases for the Sega Dreamcast, and, as always, you have all responded in a big way! We had more than double the number of respondents than the last time we did this vote way back in 2016, with 71 different titles receiving a vote and Dreamcast fans from 17 countries over five continents participating. Well, we've now counted up all your votes, and can finally reveal the results of the 2024 Top 25 Dreamcast Indie Games poll!

As well as our Top 25 indie game ranking, we also asked you to name your favourite Dreamcast indie developer, favourite Dreamcast indie publisher, and most anticipated future Dreamcast indie release, and these results too are presented below. As an added bonus, and because of the sheer number of replies we received, I've also been able to give out some regional awards for the favourite indie games in different locales - so we can present the US, UK, European and Rest of the World regional awards for best indie games alongside everything else... which is exciting if you're a bit of a nerd like me!

My thanks goes out to everyone who took the time to respond and share in our common love of the Dreamcast indie scene - it's been a really, really interesting period of voting, with positions shifting daily and some big surprises to announce!

Without further ado, let's head straight into the Top 25 - if you'd like to follow along with the Junkyard crew (along with The Sega Guru and a return appearance from founder Tom Charnock) as we reveal these positions in "real time", then you can check out episode 128 of the DreamPod podcast on your podcast platform of choice, or on Buzzsprout.

25. Fast Striker

2010 - NG:DEV.TEAM

18 places down on 2016 poll ranking

The first entrant in this year's Top 25 and the first real surprise. Fast Striker may be getting on a bit now (14 years since its initial release), but it remains a technically competent and good-looking vertical shooter that is both accessible for the novice, while also packing some challenge for the veteran shooter fanatic. Whilst it peaked at the number seven spot in the 2016 indie poll, it's never managed to break into any of our Top 200 Dreamcast games lists, and only just makes it onto this Top 25 indie list - which feels a little unfair for it, really. If you're looking to pick this one up you'll have to rely on eBay or other online sales, as copies are no longer able to be purchased new. Ripe for a re-release though, surely?

24. Rocketron 

2021 - Astro Port / JoshProd

New entry

A criminally low ranking for this one. Astro Port and JoshProd's epic sci-fi Metroidvania-style platforming adventure is a hugely enjoyable title that sees you flying around levels via a rocket pack, taking down an array of imposing enemies and exploring an expansive world. Unfortunately, it may be the case that this one was lost in the mix of other numerous JoshProd releases at the time, and despite reaching a very respectable position of 117th in our 2023 Top 200 games list, it struggled to get much attention in this indie poll. Those who have played Rocketron, however, tend to love it, so I will encourage anyone reading this to pick up a copy from the PixelHeart store and give it a try.

Developer Interview: Senile Team

Senile Team is one of the premier independent studios currently developing games for the Dreamcast. With an impressive portfolio comprising such well-known and critically acclaimed titles as Rush Rush Rally Racing and the ever-popular Beats of Rage, Senile Team has already claimed its seat at the top table. With this in mind, we though it was about time that we got together with one of Senile Team's main men Roel van Mastbergen to find out a little bit more about the history of the outfit, their influences and get some details on the brand new platform adventure heading to PC and Dreamcast very soon - Intrepid Izzy.

DCJY: Hello Roel, thanks very much for agreeing to talk to The Dreamcast Junkyard! We’re big fans of your output on the Dreamcast. Could you tell all those people who may not be familiar a little bit about yourself and the history of Senile Team?

Roel van Mastbergen: Hi Tom, thanks for inviting me to this interview. I’m Roel van Mastbergen, designer, artist and programmer for Senile Team. Senile Team is a small indie developer (currently made up of four people) originally founded in 2003, when we created Beats of Rage. This beat ‘em up based on Streets of Rage proved very popular, and we decided to keep making games, especially for the Dreamcast. Our next release was the Micro Machines-inspired Rush Rush Rally Racing, of which we recently did an updated re-release - Rush Rush Rally Reloaded which we also brought to the Nintendo Wii a few years ago.

It’s very interesting that you mention Beats of Rage - I’m pretty sure that most Dreamcast owners are familiar with it, but possibly don’t know that Senile Team is responsible for the original engine. Before we get to Beats of Rage though, one thing I have to ask - where does the studio's name ‘Senile Team’ actually come from? You don't strike me as being particularly old or decrepit. Much.

Well, back in the day we used to communicate via a mailing list. When creating the mailing list, I found that most names that actually made sense were already taken, so I sort of randomly picked the name 'Senile.' When we completed Beats of Rage, we decided to stick to it. We felt it made sense in a way, because we'd just made an old school game. 'Old' and 'senile' go hand in hand, after all!

Developer Interview: Duranik

Sturmwind is widely regarded as one of the most impressive independently developed titles on the Dreamcast, and having played it extensively I would be inclined to agree. Published in 2013 by RedSpotGames, Sturmwind was released to almost worldwide critical acclaim and popular website and YouTube/Dailymotion channel Classic Game Room even went as far as naming it as their Game of the Year.

I admit that I came to the party a little late, having only played Sturmwind for the first time earlier in 2015, but I thought it would be cool to catch up with Johannes Graf of developer Duranik to find out a little more about the team, the Atari Jaguar CD origins of Sturmwind and to ask more about the mysterious upcoming title Midsummer.

DCJY: Hi Johannes, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. First off, could you tell us a little bit about Duranik? Who makes up the team and what are your roles?

Johannes Graf: We are two brothers. Each one is doing a different part, more or less split into coding and graphics/level and game design. For Sturmwind, there were also a couple of other people contributing in different areas. For example 505 did the soundtrack and we were also happy for the help of a very enthusiastic DC fan who did endless testing and a lot of other things.