It’s been a while since I’ve written for the yard, so apologies to the rest of the team for barging in like this unannounced but I recently realised a fantastic development in the scene had slipped through the cracks of the global Junkyard news network. Since February 2022 RetroAchievements has supported a selection of Dreamcast games!
Wait! Retro... what?
What is RetroAchievements? RetroAchievements is a reward system much like XBOX Achievements or Sony’s Trophy system, integrated into the software emulation frontend, RetroArch allowing users to earn points for their favourite retro games by tracking game progress and recording it to their account.
Total accumulated points are calculated and displayed on users' profile pages, and if every achievement for a given game is unlocked, they receive a badge of honour for their profile.
My RetroAchievements profile page
Each set of achievements has a total of %200; %100 for getting them all and another %100 for doing it with hardcore mode enabled. Hardcore mode turns off save states, rewinds, fast forwarding etc, forcing you to play as you would have back in the day. So, if you want to get the full %200 of points, you’ll have to do it as they originally intended without any of the quality-of-life perks afforded to us by modern emulators. For example, in Headhunter, getting every achievement with hardcore set as ‘off’, will reward you with 700 points, but doing it set to ‘on’ will earn you a cool 1400 points. Finally, clear every achievement in a set on hardcore mode and you'll also receive a gold frame around your honorary badge (don’t worry though, you can still use regular VMU saves).
A snapshot of the Headhunter page
The second big component of the service is online leaderboards for retro games. These can take the form of high scores, speed runs or even something like number of enemies killed in a certain level, and are a fantastic way to bring players back to games from their past.
Some of the Crazy Taxi leaderboards can be seen on the right
These features are implemented, by a community of absolute heroes in my estimation, completely free of charge and without any advertising. While I’m no expert, I believe the way it works is that a dev searches memory addresses in a game's code to find variables that they can track, then set conditions using a single or even multiple of these variables which translate to achievements.
I want you to take a little trip with me down repressed memory lane. Cast your mind back. It's 2001. Everyone keeps telling you the Dreamcast is dead, but you're not having any of it. There are AAA titles still to come on the horizon, Dreamcast Magazine is still on the newsstand (barely), and you've got an eye on Lik Sang and Play-Asia for some exclusive import goodness. You're a true believer and you're not jumping the Sega ship yet (or ever).
But you have a problem. You can't stay tethered to your 15" CRT TV and curled up against the warmth of your precious blue swirl baby. You have to leave the house. You have stupid lectures to attend, and that interminable bus ride awaits. If only there was some kind of portable Sega device you could take with you to while away the drudgery of public transport.
You look to your shiny new Neo Geo Pocket Color, but it's just not Sega enough for you today. You look to your forlorn and dust-covered Game Gear lying under a pile of socks in the back corner. Those capacitors have blown and leaked and it's never coming back to life. In desperation, you fish out the VMU from your Dreamcast controller, but the batteries are dead and there's only so much of Voldo's Volleyball minigame you can take. Out of options, you trudge out into the gloom, resigned to your terrible fate.
Meanwhile, in Japan...
In June 2001, Sharp released a new generation "J-Phone" - the J-SH07. It was the first J-Phone to be compatible with Java applets, and it also came bundled with Ulala from Space Channel 5 as a kind of virtual pet / avatar on the device.
The more you used your phone, the better your "rating" gets, and as a reward, Ulala dances for you and sometimes changes costumes. You could download more Space Channel 5 related goodies from the "Ulala no Channel J" service.
Oh hi there. It's been a bit of a busy few weeks hasn't it? The petrol thing seems to be over (for now) but that hasn't stopped all manner of interesting things occuring in the world of Dreamcast...and as you'll no doubt be able to tell from the title of this post, I thought it would be convenient to simply put all of these news snippets together into one post here at the Junkyard, so here it is. A bit like that infoburst you used to get at the end of Bad Influence, but in text form. Bad Influence? No? Never mind. So what's been cracking then? Quite a bit actually...
Oh 'eck, Paprium is coming to Dreamcast!
Yes, everyone's favourite 16-bit Kickstarted ode to Streets of Rage, Paprium, is now coming to Dreamcast thanks to a new stretch goal reached as part of the 'next gen' campaign. Developed by Dreamcast stalwarts Watermelon, Paprium was released for the Mega Drive / Genesis back in 2020 to much critical acclaim and an equal amount of backlash for various reasons I won't delve into here. As a side note, I always thought it a bit odd that there was no Dreamcast version as part of the original campaign, synonymous with the console as Watermelon is after the success of Pier Solar.
That puzzlement has now been put to bed though, with the Dreamcast being lovingly included as a stretch goal in the latest resurrection of the original Kickstarter campaign to bring the game to...er...modern consoles. The Dreamcast version will apparently be a little unique according to the blurb on the campaign page, which is never a bad thing:
NEW ADD-ON! PAPRIUM is also coming to the SEGA Dreamcast! 6 years after Pier Solar HD, this is to be the second Dreamcast Release by WM! This version of the game is different, in-between the 16-BIT release and the STEAM/PS4/5 release, it boast some exclusive things and take full advantage of the Dreamcast features such as VMU and a 3 player mode without the need for a multitap (of course)! Please note the game is in 4/3 ratio (just like the 16-BIT edition of the game).
- Paprium Kickstarter
Will Watermelon shit the bed once again with this new release? I really do hope so - we all love a bit of drama. And since I've backed the Dreamcast version, it'll give me something to moan about when it inevitably ships late or gets cancelled. Anyway, check out the Kickstarter campaign here, and get ready to pap. Not even sure what that means. Onwards!
DreamPi creator Luke Benstead is digging Tunnels!
Not actual tunnels, you understand. But I'm sure Luke (aka Kazade) and his development partner David Reichelt are at least as handy with a shovel or a JCB as they are with a Dreamcast. What am I blathering about? You may recall we recently featured news about Simulant, a game engine created with Dreamcast indie development as its raison d'être. As a timely Halloween treat, Luke and David have released a promising Simulant-based demo titled Tunnels which sees players traverse a network of dingy caverns (or, um, tunnels) brandishing what looks like Gordon Freeman's property for protection. Here's a video:
Tunnels is fully playable on stock Dreamcast hardware and it looks like a promising little demo considering how quickly it was put together. From the Simulant development blog:
Tunnels is a mini-demo of the Simulant engine. It's been written over the past three weeks as a demonstration of what Simulant allows you to do in very little time. Both Luke and David have day jobs, and this has been developed in their spare time - probably an hour a day each at most - and a good majority of that time was spent improving Simulant itself!
Along the way flaws were discovered in Simulant and many were fixed, others will be fixed later. Some planned features were dropped due to limited time, but may reappear at some point. In the future we'll use Tunnels as a test bed for new Simulant features, and as a regression test.
Intrepid Izzy: Special Edition is now available to order!
We now turn our attention to another Kickstarter-funded title - Intrepid Izzy from Senile Team. If you missed our review of the exquisite platform-cum-beat 'em up, be sure to check it out here. In short, Lewis thought it was a stellar addition to the Dreamcast's stable of indie titles, and easily one of the best to hit the console, even going as far as to label Izzy as "The King (or Queen?) of Dreamcast indie platformers" - they even put that quote on the back of the box for good measure!
The good (better?) news is that a Special Edition of Intrepid Izzy is now available to pre-order from WAVE Game Studios, and comes with a soundtrack CD and a choice of region (PAL, NTSC-U, NTSC-J) packaging styles.
The initial print run of 750 units [of Intrepid Izzy] sold out almost immediately, prompting a reprint just 28 days after release. The fastest known for an independently released Dreamcast title.
In response to considerable demand for both the game and the music featured therein, WAVE announced that a limited run two-disc Special Edition will be released on November 20, 2021. This version includes an audio CD with the full official soundtrack, and is available in European, North American, and Japanese cover art variants.
- WAVE Game Studios
The fastest selling out indie Dreamcast game, eh? Who knew? Not I. Did you? You do now! Intrepid Izzy: Special Edition launches 20 November 2021. Head over to the WAVE Game Studios website to pre-order it for £34.99. There's also a cool vinyl figure available too, if that's your bag. Actually, buy two and make them fight; with the loser being burned with a magnifying glass.
A new Dreamcast fan translation project - Nakoruru!
Some say he can translate a Japanese Dreamcast game manual without even reading it. Others say he can detect an obscure NTSC-J dating sim hidden at the back of a retro game store from a distance of 40 miles. All we know, is his name is Derek Pascarella. And if you've never seen Top Gear, that reference will go right over your head. If you've been following the Dreamcast fan translation scene for any amount of time, you'll be familiar with the work of Mr Pascarella, who has previously worked on English translations of Dreamcast titles such as Sakura Wars Columns 2 and Neon Genesis Evangelion Typing Project Advanced.
Now he's back with another translation project, Nakoruru: The Gift She Gave Me, which is a visual novel title set in the Samurai Shodown universe. This isn't actually new news per se, with both MegaVisions and SegaXtreme sharing the original Dreamcast Talk thread back in August 2021. What is new news though, is that our very own Lewis Cox has joined the Nakoruru team as an English language editor, and for this reason alone I wanted to refresh some mention of this intriguing translation project. If you'd like to know more about Derek's past translation efforts, check out DreamPod episode 93 here.
Those pesky Shadow Gangs are kicking bountiful handfuls of ass on Dreamcast!
Oh Shadow Gangs, where for art though Shadow Gangs? Shall I compare thee to a 1990s Sega arcade game featuring a ninja that was then ported to home consoles? So wrote Chaucer, rather anachronistically, back in the mid 1970s after a particularly heavy session on the old crack pipe. Which is quite fitting, seeing as Shadow Gangs is a 1980s themed/inspired side scrolling beat 'em up that people have likened to Shinobi. I haven't played Shadow Gangs myself, but I do recall it being mooted to be heading to the Dreamcast at least as far back as 2016 - possibly even earlier (thanks Dreamcast Today - I knew I hadn't imagined that). The game was released on Steam and other consoles in the fairly recent past however - to generally positive reviews - and now a video has surfaced of a port running on the creaking old Dreamcast. Here you go:
Looks like a fairly accurate rendition to me, and it seems pretty much identical to the video on the Steam page. It appears that another Kickstarter to get Shadow Gangs fully up and running on Dreamcast is on the cards, and we'll no doubt share the news once that project is launched.
SEGA Powered brings SEGA Power back from the dead, with the (unofficial) Power of Sega!
Not exclusively Dreamcast related this one, but I just needed an excuse to type that subheading. Back when I was a wee lad, SEGA Power was one of a number of physical mags I would regularly purchase, and so it was a bit of a no brainer that I would back one-time editor Dean Mortlock's love letter to such an iconic tome. Dean is assisted by Niel Randall (DC-UK), Paul Monaghan (Maximum Power Up) and Marc Jowett (SegaMags), so the knowledge and pedigree is assured.
The teaser issue of SEGA Powered looks like it will hit all the right marks for fans of the magazines of yesteryear, and I for one will be intrigued to see what kind of Dreamcast-related content is included. Check out the Kickstarter campaign and bag a copy of the mag here. Update - the Kickstarter for SEGA Powered has now ended but I am reliably informed that a website for the magazine will be launched so you can buy a copy/subscription even if you missed the campaign.
There's plenty of other Dreamcast related stuff going on around the internet but I thought I would leave it there for the sake of brevity. Oh, and I got a bit sick of typing the word 'Kickstarter,' but I digress. Be sure to check out all of the other wonderful Dreamcast news repositories dotted around the information superhighway for even more interesting little projects bubbling happily away.
We plan to do these round-ups more regularly from now on as it's just a bit more concise than having multiple posts about stuff, so if there's anything you spot that you think we should include in future news posts, let us know in the comments. Cheers!
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 Textorcist was released on Steam back in 2019 and received some pretty high praise from the gaming press and players alike. A mash up of traditional top down RPG, bullet hell shmup and - naturally - typing tutor, Headup's offering is nothing if not original. Or bonkers. You decide.
Either way, you'll no doubt be aware that The Textorcist is now heading to the Dreamcast, courtesy of Gamefairy. The game will come in a choice of two different editions, with a standard editon and a special edition (limited to 666 copies - nice) both being available to preorder now.
The Textorcist casts the player as Ray Bibbia, a private exorcist who must traverse a tradional looking top down world, battling enemies using his bible and reciting prayers and spells while dodging bullets. The controls are the thing that intigues here though, as the game is primarily meant to be played with a keyboard. As the battles rage, the player types the spells as they appear on the screen.
We're always up for games that try to do something a bit different here at the Junkyard, and The Textorcist looks like it won't dissappoint. We're reliably informed that you can use the standard Dreamcast controller if you want to, but the keyboard should be used for maximum demonic thrills. Plus, if you screw up, throwing a keyboard across the room in a rage is way more satisfying than just lobbing a controller. Cough.
We spoke to the developers at Headup to ask what the inspiration was behind The Textorcist's bizarre combination of play styles, and why bring it to the Dreamcast?
"We wanted to recreate that exact feel from the horror movie "The Exorcist" where the task was simply to recite a spell but this was made nearly impossible because of all the barf and all sorts of things thrown at the priest.
"The point was to clash two completely different activities, like typing and dodging and see where that would bring us. I'm amazed by how much players struggle and swear but learn some real Latin prayers and to blind type and get much better at the same time without noticing. This constant duality is present at some very different layers and creates a unique game feel that made us fall in love with the idea."
- Diego, Developer
"The minute we laid our hands on the very first PC version of The Textorcist, our brains just started swirling, shouting "Dreamcast! Typing of the Dead! Keyboard! Bullets!" We simply had to recreate this game for the best console ever released. It was unavoidable."
- Dieter, Headup CEO
Unavoidable indeed, Dieter. And a nice nod to The Typing of the Dead there. The standard edition of The Textorcist comes - as you'd expect - with just the game and manual, however the 666 copy limited edition boasts a music CD and a fancy embossed case. The game is expected to ship in April 2021, and you can snap up a copy for $29.99 (standard) or $39.99 (limited) over at Gamefairy now.
No doubt we'll have a review up here once the game ships, and thanks to Julian at Gamefairy for putting us in touch with Diego and Dieter.
Recently I was perusing one of my favourite subreddits - r/lostmedia - and I came across a post from a user named u/step-ladder. The post was enquiring about a little known Jet Set Radio game that was developed for mobile phones back in 2001. The game, titled Typing Jet, was released as part of a collection of Sega spin offs for the Japanese J-Phone range of devices, and prior to reading this post on Reddit I was oblivious to Typing Jet's existence. The post also makes reference to a single image (below) that is available of Typing Jet online, and as someone who loves a good mystery, I needed to know more.
Typing Jet appears to be a rather simplistic typing game, in which the player types words in order to make the onscreen character (resembling JSR favourite Beat) trick over obstacles as they approach. Several other users had posted replies, but alas the question had remained unanswered - is Typing Jet really a lost game? Inspired, I used what scant information other users had posted and off I went, tumbling down what turned out to be something of a Wayback Machine sponsored rabbit hole.
Armed with the knowledge that Typing Jet had been released alongside a title called Ulala's Channel J and a variant of The Typing of the Dead on a service called Sega Parade, I first tried searching for that name, and was served up with the url www.segaparade.com/nz. It's a dead link, and the site is not stored on the Wayback Machine either. However, using the Google 'cached' feature and several variations of the url, I was able to surface quite a bit of information on the games released. Alas, none of the hits gave me the elusive Typing Jet.
At this point, it's probably worth discussing J-Phone. Indeed, J-Phone is an interesting topic in and of itself and could probably spawn an entire article were I so inclined to research and write such a thing, but I'll keep it fairly brief in this instance, just to give a bit of context (and because I'm in no way an expert on the topic!). In an nutshell, J-Phone was a mobile phone technology launched in Japan in the late 1990s which allowed compatible devices to connect to an online service similar to iMode - a sort of precursor to high speed mobile internet such as 3G. J-Phone enabled devices could access this service via a menu, and then through a portal exclusive games, email and other online options were all accessible. It is through this portal that the games referenced above could be played, for a monthly fee of several hundred Yen a piece. According to this article, linked to in the original r/lostmedia post, the price of Typing Jet was set at ¥200 per month (which is about £1.32/$1.84/€1.51 at the time of writing).
I mention all of this because my next port of call was the J-Phone website, the url for which I gleaned from a photo posted on the Ulala Channel J Fandom page. Further down the page, there is a shot of a promotional hand held fan with the J-Phone logo and url. As you can probably tell, Columbo ain't got sh*t on me. Again, using the Wayback Machine I perused the Japanese version of the site from around the time of the release of Typing Jet, but wasn't really able to find any mention of the game - only stuff relating the differing models of handset and references to Vodafone, Sha-Mail and things called J-Sky Photo and J-Sky Editor. Interesting, I'm sure you'll agree...but not really relevant to Typing Jet.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is considered to be one of the greatest anime series to ever exist. I wouldn't know, because disgracefully, I've never watched it. If you are a fan, you may be excited to know that not one, but three Evangelion games graced Sega's beautiful white box of dreams, exclusively in Japan. You will probably then be disappointed to hear that unfortunately, two of them are typing tutors, and one is a visual novel; two genres that are pretty much impenetrable for non-Japanese speakers. Well, worry not, as the first of the two typing tutor games, Neon Genesis Evangelion -Typing E Keikaku-, is getting translated by a clever chap called Derek Pascarella.
Developed and published by Gainax in 2001, Typing E Keikaku makes use of the Dreamcast's keyboard peripheral to teach typing. It's no Typing of the Dead, but it's bound to be appealing for fans of its beloved anime source material. For the most part, the game is QWERTY-keyboard friendly, and typing sections of the game can be easily understood by non-Japanese speakers - some levels ask you to spell English words, while others use Romanji spellings of Japanese words. Derek released version 1.0 of his patch today, which translates all menus, options, dialog boxes and screens in the game. Other than some short sequences of spoken dialogue, levels 1 through 4 are translated.
Levels 5 and 6, as well as the bonus level, have only had their menus translated - they are currently not playable by non-Japanese speakers as the game asks the player to type words written in a mixture of Kanji and Katakana/Hiragana. The game expects the player to know how to construct Kanji characters with a combination of Katakana/Hiragana. In the readme Derek released with the game, he stresses how translating these levels of the game are going to be very challenging, but for now we can enjoy the very playable first four levels. So dust off your Dreamcast keyboard, and download the patch using the link below. Oh, and give Derek a follow on Twitter, so you can thank him for his hard work, and keep up to date on this ongoing translation.
OK so I basically nicked this idea from Eurogamer, but I thought it would be good to do a sort of festive wrap up (geddit?) of our most interesting posts, podcast episodes and YouTube videos from the past 12 months. 2020 has been a disgusting year for reasons you really don't need me to spell out here, and for me personally one of great loss, but having this place to spew my creativity out onto has been a huge help when things haven't been so positive.
I'm sure I'm not alone in that sentiment either, as everyone here at the Junkyard has experienced ups and downs throughout 2020, as I'm sure you have dear reader. At this point I must admit to having forgotten about all the minor hits we scored here at the Junkyard throughout the year, and just how much cool stuff happened within the wider Dreamcast community. From new game releases, to unreleased games being discovered, and all the stuff that went in between. Anyway, cast your eyes below to find links and summaries to some of our choicest cuts from the last 12 months...
Articles
The Dreamcast games of 2020 - we kicked things off with a look at the plentiful bounty of new titles heading to Sega's final console during 2020. Some of them materialised, some of them have slipped to 2021...but that just means we can rehash this in a few weeks time!
Fun with Dreamcast Flags - Mike goes all Sheldon Cooper, and takes a look at the ways real world flags are treated when transplanted into Dreamcast games. It's an excellently researched article written with real humour and is actually quite educational.
Using Google Translate to play NTSC-J games - this was more of an exercise in trying to find something to entertain myself with during a period of intense boredom. Using the Google Translate phone app to play Japanese Dreamcast games. Yep, hard hitting stuff!
The Mystery of Real Racer IX - Lewis went on a fascinating deep dive trying to uncover the origins of the mysterious Real Racer IX, a game that was shown in a solitary photograph taken at the Tokyo Game Show in 2001. Never heard of Real Racer IX? I suggest you read this excellent article.
Dreamcast: Year One - we finally took delivery of Andrew Dickinson's Dreamcast: Year One, a book successfully funded on Kickstarter. Featuring retrospective reviews, a breakdown of the Dreamcast's history and interviews with such industry titans as Bernie Stolar, it was worth the wait.
Dreamcast racers that didn't make the podium - the Dreamcast plays host to some stellar racers, but what about the also-rans? James took a look at some of the Dreamcast's best 'tier 2' racing games in this superb article.
Heroes of Might & Magic III - earlier in 2020 a playable build of Heroes of Might & Magic III for Dreamcast was finally released from it's prison in the hands of a private collector, thanks to a community fundraiser. Follow up article here.
This is a Dreamcast Disc - Tom embarked on another wild goose chase trying to discover the identity of the actor who utters the immortal words you hear when you place a PAL game disc into a stereo. This is part one, with part two to (hopefully) come in 2021.
All the times a Toyota Celica appeared in a Dreamcast game - believe it or not, the Toyota Celica appears in quite a few Dreamcast games. Tom only realised this after getting one in real life. Here is the fruit of his utterly pointless labour.
Dreamcast Printer discovered- yes, you realised this was an April Fools...but for a brief period, James' prank bamboozled at least a few of you. Here we look at the 'lost' printer prototype that would have theoretically allowed you to print off your Dreamarena emails and documents stored on a Zip disc.
Dreamcast Collectors Unite! - a multi-post endeavour from Mike looking at the wondrous and magical Dreamcast items held in the collections of community members. There's some really cool stuff here, be sure to check out part 2, part 3 and part 4 too!
Punk albums featuring Dreamcast music - Another banger from Mike, during which he takes us on a magical mystery tour of his favourite punk albums which also feature music or samples used in various Dreamcast games.
10 times rappers have referenced the Dreamcast - Lewis dons his massive collection of gold chains and goes for a trip to the shops in his low rider, while simultaneously demonstrating 10 times rappers have referenced Sega's little white box in their slapping tunes.
EMAP's lost Official Dreamcast Magazine - Andrew delves between the hypothetical pages of the pitched but never produced Official Dreamcast Magazine that was shown to Sega by EMAP. Dennis Publishing famously won the battle to provide the UK's Official Dreamcast Magazine, but this interview with Dave Kelsall of the production team is a fascinating look at what could have been.
A Dreamcast launch retrospectacle - Brian took a look at all of the Dreamcast's US launch titles in this superb listicle, eventually distilling the list down to reveal his favourite of the bunch.
The musical excellence of Rez - Martin looks into the audio splendour of Rez, one of the Dreamcast's most iconic yet unusual titles. The music and the visuals combine to create a truly out of this world experience, and this article explores this relationship.
Atomiswave games come to Dreamcast - anyone who spends enough time wrapped up in the online Dreamcast community will have heard that recent developments have allowed the Dreamcast to run Atomiswave arcade games. Here Tom takes a look at the story, with a follow up article on the games themselves here.
Simpson's Bug Squad discovered - you already know what this is. A lost Simpson's tech demo was discovered on an old Red Lemon Studios dev kit. We take no credit - that all goes to the lovely folks at Dreamcast Talk. It was nice of Eurogamer, VG247, Engadget, Kotaku et al to give us a mention and a link though!
After the Fall review - a Quake total conversion that had been in development for an inordinate amount of time, After the Fall was finally delivered by Pip Nayler in 2020. Tom grabbed his super shotgun and went in search of alien scum in this review.
Xenocider preview - originally slated to release in 2020, Retro Sumus' debut Dreamcast title now looks set to release early in 2021. It looks set to become the first heavy hitter of the year, and our review will be coming soon. For now, check out our preview.
Xeno Crisis review - Bitmap Bureau's excellent top down indie shooter finally hit the Dreamcast in 2020 and Mike was wowed by the quality of the experience, proclaiming it to be one of the best indie games to grace the platform. Read his comprehensive review here!
Arcade Racing Legends review - Another comprehensive review from Mike, this time looking at the lastest offering from JoshProd - Arcade Racing Legends. Did it live up to the hype or roll into the pits with a flat tire? Check out the review to find out.
Flea! a new Dreamcast game appears - a bit of a stealth release for the Dreamcast, this. 2020 saw Flea!, a retro-themed platformer come to the Dreamcast. Mike took a look at this charming game.
An interview with Tom Charnock - yes, an interview with me, about this blog. We're 15 years old this year, so James thought it would be a good idea to ask me about how it all began. Give it a read if you want.
Podcast episodes & YouTube highlights
Did you know we have a podcast? Well, we do! It's called DreamPod and you can find it on all the major podcatchers. Each episode we shoot the breeze on all things Dreamcast related, and quite often veer way off track, and there's always some lighthearted ribbing involved. Unless your name is James Harvey, where the insults are genuine. We've released quite a few episodes in 2020, no doubt thanks to the enthusiasm to the show exhibited by Andrew, coupled with Lewis's undying devotion to editing. Check them out below!
We also have a YouTube Channel, which was set up in the mists of time by Aaron 'the Gagaman' Foster, but is now curated by James Jarvis. We've posted quite a few videos up there this year, with some selected highlights listed below for your enjoyment!
So there we have it. It's not an exhaustive list of content we've put out this year, and if you search the archives you'll find even more content created simply for the love of the game. It's surprising how much we've actually put out in all honesty, and I'd like to thank all of the team here at The Dreamcast Junkyard for their efforts - Mike Phelan, Lewis Cox, Martin Irwin, James Harvey, Andrew Dickinson, Kev Mason, Mark Williams, James Jarvis, Brian Vines; and of course Jon and the rest of the the long-suffering moderation team over in our Facebook group.
Also a huge thanks to all of you who continue to read, listen to and watch what we create here on our little corner of the internet, and engage with us on Twitter. There's more to come in 2021, including some changes to the way we do certain things, so keep an eye out for those. For now though (sorry DreamcastGuy), keep dreaming!
While the promise of online gaming was a big part of Sega's marketing campaign when trying to flog the Dreamcast to the masses, many games simply didn't have any online gameplay portion. That didn't stop certain games proudly displaying the fact that they offered 'online functions' on the packaging, though. Usually, what this meant was that high scores could be uploaded to a leader board; or that certain things could be downloaded from a dedicated portal to a VMU that added extra features. For example, ghost car times in racing games, or mini games that could be played on a VMU screen. Some games offered more than others in this area, and one of the best when it came to added online extras was the awesome Jet Grind Radio.
As detailed in this story over at Dreamcast Live, the Jet Grind Radio website has been resurrected in (almost) its entirety, meaning that you can once again hook your Dreamcast up to the internet and browse the various pages that could be accessed from the game's main menu. Hidden away in this treasure trove from yesteryear are a graffiti gallery and ranking page, along with a hints and tips section that actually corrects some of the information printed in the physical manual. This isn't the first time a game's bespoke website has been revived, as the Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 sites were both brought back online recently too.
We recently took a look at the PS Vita, and more specifically some of the titles that are available for Sony’s sleek yet neglected handheld which have their roots on the Dreamcast. While many of the games in that article feature alterations and improvements over their originators, they all keep the same basic gameplay and – most importantly – allow a whole new generation of gamers to experience the magic of the Dreamcast. It’s true that many of us in the Dreamcast community take it for granted that we were there the first time around and got to experience the Dreamcast when it was new and exciting, and in a way the re-release of certain Dreamcast titles on contemporary platforms allows younger gamers the opportunity to enjoy what we felt back then. Probably why there’s so much call for Shenmue remasters…but that’s a whole different topic for another day.
When I wrote about the PS Vita’s small but perfectly formed Dreamcast-derived library, I also mentioned my love for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and here I will repeat what I iterated there: the Game Boy Advance SP is my favourite handheld of all time. While I do own a Game Boy Micro and an original Game Boy Advance, it is the SP (or more specifically the AGS 101 backlit model) which is my go-to handheld whenever I want a break from my Vita. For me, it is the greatest handheld ever crafted; there’s just something about that amazing screen, the pleasing form factor and the superlative library of ‘perfect for handheld’ first and third party games.
That said, the Game Boy Advance is also a console that offers a multitude of titles that could be seen as extensions of games that first appeared on the Dreamcast. When you consider that the console was released into the immediate power vacuum after the Dreamcast’s demise (with the PS2, Gamecube and Xbox all circling over the corpse) it was a smart move on Sega’s part to allow IPs that were still fresh in most peoples’ minds to receive ports and spin offs on Nintendo’s seminal handheld - even if the majority of them weren't actually developed or published by Sega. The most intriguing aspect of this glut of semi-sequels and supplemental releases, is that a lot of them were so technically ambitious and eschewed the familiar 'top down' or 'side scrolling' approach usually afforded to similar releases on the Game Boy Color, for example.
Developers embraced the limited 3D capabilities of the Game Boy Advance and let their imaginations flourish, heralding a whole new era in console-to-handheld ports...with mixed results. Some of the console to handheld ports are marvels of their time, with cunning workarounds and developer technical expertise laid bare; while others tried to capture the essence of their console brethren and lost something in the jump from the TV screen to the pocket (something that is no longer an issue thanks to the Switch). Anyway, let’s put the kibosh on the procrastination and take a look at some of the Dreamcast games that got a second shot at glory - for better or worse - on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance...
Issue 20 of Paragon Publishing's unofficial Dreamcast Magazine was released on the 22nd March 2001. By this point, the news of Sega's 'restructure' and shift to becoming a software-only developer and publisher had already broken and as such, the seismic ripples had spread throughout the gaming industry. Dreamcast games were being cancelled at an unprecedented rate, and in an effort to shift units the console's price point was slashed dramatically in all territories.
This was actually quite a bold and positive move by Sega, as reports in issue 20 reveal that the price drop actually helped to increase sales of the ailing Dreamcast. Other positive news reported that the Dreamcast won several awards at the Electronics Boutique annual awards, even bagging a 'console of the year' award for 2000. Sadly though, this was all academic because as we now know, the console didn't really have much longer to live.
Even in light of such moribund developments though, Dreamcast Magazine continued for quite some time and as referenced in the editor's intro March 2001 heralded the closure of the only other unofficial Dreamcast magazine on sale in the UK (which I'm guessing was DC-UK, although don't quote me on that). What this meant was, after March 2001 the only magazines flying the blue swirl on newsstands in the UK (and possibly mainland Europe, too) were Dreamcast Magazine and the Official Dreamcast Magazine; a publication which itself went down the drain not too long later...
You'll no doubt recall the recently revealed LightConn, the wireless Dreamcast lightgun that works with flatscreen televisions. It's the work of talented Greek modder and programmer Chris Diaoglou, creator of the DreamConn wireless controller we looked at in 2015. Chris has been busy implementing his Bluetooth tech into all sorts of other Dreamcast peripherals over the last few months and now he's revealed the next one to be stripped of its wires - the keyboard.
Dubbed the KeybConn, this prototype utilises the same wireless dongle as the gun and the controller and allows users to play any number of keyboard-compatible games from the comfort of a couch or desk without being limited to the length of the cable. While this probably isn't a problem many of us have encountered in the recent past, it's still a very cool addition to the Dreamcast's growing collection of wireless peripherals.
The weekend of the 8th and 9th of October 2016 saw Replay Events' huge Play Expo gaming event return to the north west of England, with Play Expo Manchester. The event has been a staple of the gaming calendar for many people in the UK and European gaming communities for the last few years as it blends retro, current, PC, console and board gaming; and supplements them with cosplay competitions, indie game showcases and more arcade and pinball machines than you can shake a stick at - all set to free play. Oh, and there are hundreds of sellers on hand to offer event goers the opportunity to pick up all kinds of gaming paraphernalia, should their budgets stretch to it.
Naturally, The Dreamcast Junkyard was there and our booth in the community zone was the biggest one we've put on yet, featuring 8 Dreamcast systems of all different flavours and a whole range of games and peripherals for the public to experience. The turn out at Play Expo was stunning and was quite possibly the largest and busiest to date, with thousands upon thousands of gamers and collectors flooding the Event City venue over the course of the two days.
As exhibitors, it was amazing to see so much appreciation and love for the Dreamcast, and our little corner of the event hall was barely ever empty and on more than one occasion it was absolutely teeming with people keen to play on the games we had on offer.
