What? More Bleem?
I, the GagaMan(n), anti-Playstation extraordinarie, have bought myself a PSone.
Before you all come charging down to my house with pitch folks and axes, I have my reasons. First, it wasn't the butt ugly early model, but the cute as puppies smaller model that looks a little bit like the Dreamcast. Second, it was in next to brand new condition. Third, it came in a cool little official carry case, and forth, and most importantly, it only cost me five quid.
Now I would give any console a go for that kind of price, so here I am, plugging up a console I swore I would never own, but hey, I already have games for it, remember? The one's I bought dirt cheap to try on the Bleemcast beta emulator? Yeah, those. Now I can actually save my progress for them! Sadly, I can't run the burned discs of rare Japanese games I've got, as I'd need to get a mod chip in it to run them, but at least I can compare how the games look on the console they were made for and the console they weren't. I had gotten used to the smoothness of Time Crisis running on Bleem, so sticking the game into the PSone gave me a bit of a shock as everything is much, much more pixellated. It's all to do with the fact that in Bleem the games run at twice the resolution they do on the PSone and even the PS2 (and, by the sounds of recent news, the PS3 as well). Haha!
Now don't get me wrong, the Playstation had some true classics and under rated gems on it, but you try finding proper copies of them. Browsing through Gamestation and GAME in various towns, it seems that everyone has held onto these gems and given these shops nothing but football games. I swear to god, the PSone has about a million of them, even one just focused around David Beckham! Compare this to the six or seven that the Dreamcast has. Not being a fan of Football myself, I'm kind of glad I don't have to bury my way through every month's FIFA release when searching for good Dreamcast games, but it could have had at least one really good one, like Worldwide Soccer 98 on the Saturn. If it's not football, it's some other sports sim, wrestling, or one of the early racing games like Porsche Challenge and RIIIIDGE RACER. Sigh.
I was lucky to find one gem last week, however, at a boot sale for £1. R-Type Delta, a rather lovely 2.5D (Read: 2D game with 3D graphics) shump. Although I am a big shump fan, I never really got into the R-Type series, so this is a first go at it. For the fun of it I ran it through the Bleem Beta and, what do you know, it worked almost perfectly in it! With it being an arcade game and all, you don't really need to save this game unless you want to keep your rankings, so it's the prefect kind of game to run well in Bleem. Here's the clip I ripped from it, in which I do pretty terribly.
Official Mega Drive Emulator For Dreamcast Discovered
It appears that there was an alternative Mega Drive emulator being worked on as a joint venture between Sega Japan and Sega Europe, and - like most stories about vapourware - this has never been substantiated with hard facts. Mentions of PAL versions of Sega Smash Pack with a better and more varied library, twinned with superior emulation can be found in Dreamcast magazines of the era but nothing concrete has ever been seen. Until now, that is.
This is all thanks to a Dreamcast fan called Comby Laurent, who recently found a mysterious GD-Rom in a bunch of discs he acquired. He posted a short video and a few images on the Dreamcast Junkyard Facebook group and I recognised the Mega Drive emulator as the same one I had played when I visited an ex-Sega employee some time ago to record footage of the unreleased Take the Bullet and Colin McRae Rally 2.0. I did record some video of the emulator back then, but my MacBook went into meltdown about a week later and the footage was lost.
Hands on with the 'RetroFighters DC Striker' Pad
For me a better way to describe 'retro gaming' is as something that is historically important to your age group or own personal life. Space Invaders and Pacman are still great games I am interested in playing, whereas I dislike others from the same period and will give up on them after about 45 seconds, similarly in cinema terms I would just call 'Jaws' a masterpiece and recommend it to anyone despite it coming out 7 years before I was even born, but I don't value or label all films from that era in the same way, there is no retro in other mediums as contentious as in Video games.
Nakoruru: The Gift She Gave Me - Samurai Shodown Spin-Off for Dreamcast Translated into English!
After nearly two years of hard work, I am absolutely elated to inform you that a team consisting of Derek Pascarella, Duralumin, Marshal Wong and myself have completed our English translation of Nakoruru: Ano Hito kara no Okurimono for the Sega Dreamcast, and today you will be able to play it.
Being a fan favourite character of SNK’s beloved Samurai Shodown fighting franchise (known as Samurai Spirits in Japan), it’s only natural that Nakoruru would get her own spin-off game. SNK granted developer Inter-Let's the privilege of crafting a story that explored her character in finer detail, with the result being Nakoruru: The Gift She Gave Me (as we’ve decided to dub it), a Japan-exclusive visual novel game released for Windows in 2001, with an improved Dreamcast version releasing a year later in 2002. To take a source material known for its intense arcade fighting thrills and adapt it into a quiet, heartfelt text-based adventure was definitely intriguing, so much so that it made us want to produce an English translation almost two decades later!
To translate the game into English was no small feat, however. With over 12,000 lines of text, our translation of Nakoruru was going to take us more than a year to produce. But it honestly feels like that time has flown by, because the more we worked on translating the scripts, the more we fell in love with the game's plot and characters.
Mikato meets Nakoruru for the first time. |
The game’s story is told from the perspective of seven-year-old Mikato, an orphan who is taken in by the people of the snowy village Kamui Kotan. She is selected by the village's chief to serve as assistant to the shrine maiden Nakoruru, somebody the people of Kamui Kotan admire for her strength, dependability, and outward positivity. Mikato soon realises, however, that deep down, Nakoruru is harbouring an intense sorrow.
While Nakoruru is based in the world of Samurai Shodown, it can be played without any prior knowledge of the franchise, but if you are a Shodown fan, there are quite a few playful references to other characters in the franchise sprinkled throughout the game's script.
Nakoruru's childhood friends Yantamu and Manari. |
The gameplay of Nakoruru is simple, and familiar to those who have played a visual novel before. Advance the story with a button press, and occasionally make choices, some of which greatly affect the game’s narrative.
Also included throughout the story are several basic but charming mini-games. These include quizzes, fishing, dodging enemy attacks, playing music, and more.
While Nakoruru may lack the 3D graphics and arcade action many associate with the Dreamcast, it still boasts gorgeous, crisp, hand-drawn 2D artwork, and its beautiful coming-of-age storyline will pull at your heart strings as it deals with topics of friendship, loss and insecurity. The Dreamcast received over 100 visual novel titles in Japan, and in terms of quality, Nakoruru is up there with the best the system has to offer. For those new to the visual novel genre, you can learn more about them in this fantastic video by Bowl of Lentils.
Combat training mini-game where you dodge left or right to escape attacks. |
We adopted an assembly line process to translate the game’s script. First, dialogue for an individual scene would be translated by Marshal and Duralumin, then the editors - both myself and Derek, would check over the translations for any spelling or grammatical errors, but primarily to ensure they read as naturally as possible in English. Once the script edits were complete, Derek would insert them back into the game. Working together and seeing the story come to life, and by our own making, was incredibly rewarding.
Making an important decision in the heat of combat. |
Digital Artists Create Jet Set Radio Tags For New York Yami-Ichi 'Internet Black Market'
The Internet Yami-Ichi (Internet Black Market) is a flea market which deals "Internet-ish" things, face-to-face, in actual space. Both flea markets and the Internet are fanatical and chaotic mixes of the amazing and useless. In the Internet Yami-Ichi both the wills and desires which brought us to create the Internet, and the wills and desires we picked up are salvaged to be shared in a social space.
Everything from art based on popular memes to the more bizarre aspects of internet folklore are on display for visitors to the free event to purchase, with many items created as one-offs solely for this gathering. The reason we're reporting on this event (apart from the fact that it sounds really cool) is that a collective of digital artists got together to create something truly special for Internet Yami-Ichi in NY2: a VMU full of bespoke graffiti tags for use in Jet Set Radio for the Dreamcast.
Dreamcast Vs Wii U: Which Failed Harder?
Update: we now know this console will be called Switch, so probably ignore the NX logo below. Ta.
The other good thing about this announcement is that finally, the Wii U has been handed a respite and the agonisingly slow death of the console looks to be coming to an end - euthanised, even. Let's not beat around the bush here - the Wii U has been a bit of a disaster for Nintendo in comparison to past hardware releases, and while the system does play host to some fantastic games that simply ooze typical Nintendo quality, no-one can deny that the thing clearly occupies the 'also-ran' spot in both of the console generations it straddles.
For me, the Wii U was cursed from the start simply because it confused the fuck out of the casual market Nintendo was aiming it at; those people who bought the original Wii thought it was an add-on, and those who had Xbox 360s and PS3s were shown a system with a dinner tray for a controller and a bunch of launch titles that were already available (for the most part) on the console they already owned. Now though, Nintendo has pretty much signalled its intent by announcing the NX (or whatever it ends up being called) and so, just four years after introduction the Wii U looks like it'll be put out to pasture quite soon. Inevitably this has lead to forum threads such as this one, where the question is asked: which system enjoyed a better time during it's contemporary lifespan - the Sega Dreamcast or the Nintendo Wii U?
Source: ZhugeEX Blog |
Colin McRae Rally 2.0 Revealed
Alas, Codemasters decided that work on the game would be cancelled and with that the dream of a proper rally simulation on the Dreamcast died. Widely thought to be a 'lost' Dreamcast game, Colin McRae Rally 2.0 for Dreamcast has been the stuff of forum rumours ever since, but I am thrilled to announce I have had the pleasure of sampling the game...and I took footage to prove it. It's in no way complete (around 30%) and there's not a lot to it - just one track and some options (plus it requires a specific VMU to run) - but it is playable and apart from some slowdown is every bit as good as you would expect.
New DCJ Video: VMU Wonders
Photos and Video Footage of the VM2 Revealed!
In 2022, Dreamcast fans the world over were buzzing at the announcement of a “next-gen” Visual Memory Unit - the VM2. The news even reached the likes of Yahoo! Japan. Created by Chris Diaoglou, who brought us the very impressive DreamConn Bluetooth controller back in 2016, the VM2 blasted past its goal on IndieGoGo. Congratulations, Chris!
Including a backlit LCD screen with higher resolution, along with Micro-SD storage internal storage of 128KB (200 blocks), and a rechargeable high-capacity internal battery with USB-C charging; the VM2 looks to be the VMU to end all VMUs. No more having to swap VMUs around when you run out of space, or running through CR2032 batteries every two seconds. Woo!
Anyhow, our friend Derek Pascarella shared some photos on our Discord (as well as his Twitter), courtesy of Chris, of the first test production run of the VM2, and it's looking damn good. Note the larger screen that includes icons for the battery and the SD card, along with a power button (instead of a sleep button).
Trading in Dozens of Dreamcast VMUs at GameStop
The wind howled through the crack in the window pane, and a crackle of lightning illuminated the room as a cat hissed and fled from the encroaching storm. There was spilled Diet Dr. Pepper on the large cardboard box filled with retro video games, temporarily framed by the flash from the approaching storm. Actually, none of that happened. I just wanted to begin this tale with an over dramatic intro. Everything else here is factual, though.
I was filled with self disgust as I feverishly cleaned up the very small spill which I was sure would get me labelled as "that guy" by the employee who would have to go through the box later on and tell me what pittance they would bring for trade in. We all know who "that guy" is, the disgusting loser who at the age of 35 is trading in over a decade's worth of gaming detritus so he could justify getting a new console that was clearly manufactured with a younger, more attractive audience in mind. Of course I thought I was that guy, but I didn't want anyone else to recognize that fact. So I checked every single game to make sure there was no telltale brown dot of diet soda that would out me as a loser. That was my mindset as I left my condo.
Earlier I was digging through other cardboard boxes and comparing VMUs to each other. I didn't want to be a dipshit and try to sell broken stuff to GameStop but at the same time I couldn't bear to part with immaculate Visual Memory Units with their caps firmly in place that had probably never been used. The irony of course was that the bulk of the VMUs had been purchased from a GameStop for 50 cents each when they were clearanced out. My local store in Watertown, NY had told me that they had no Dreamcast items left. A month later I was in Syracuse, NY and they had a huge double rack of Dreamcast items on deep clearance. When I had asked where they all came from they told me that had been sent from the Watertown store. Now they would be sold back to GameStop for $2.25 each. A true example of the gaming circle of life. As a VMU hoarder, the volatile video game market had finally swung into my favor...
DreamPod - Episode 28: Bonus Features - 'Ghost Host' Textual Commentary
You know how DVDs and Blu-rays often come with audio commentary that you can listen to while you're watching the film? You can get further insight into what's happening on screen or interesting behind the scenes anecdotes. Well, what if I could do an audio commentary for a podcast? That would be silly wouldn't it? You can't listen to both at once, unless you spliced more then one audio source together into an extended podcast (Tom from the Future says Hi!), but that's not really the same, is it? So how about a textual commentary? Wouldn't that be cool? It's like we've dropped two levels from a second order derivative back to the original equation (Video > Audio > Screenplay, or TV > Radio Play > Book). See? It totally makes sense.
Ooooh, a maths analogy, this must be a classy blog |
Review: Alice Dreams Tournament
The Dreamcast represents one of the last major consoles to feature four controller ports as standard, and the inclusion of a modem makes it a system that truly straddled the eras where playing with others became an oxymoronic experience with gamers connected via the internet as opposed to being sat on the same couch. Obviously, there are still plenty of games that offer local multi-player play modes but these days it's seen as a unique selling point or gimmick rather than a standard feature. Enter Alice Dreams Tournament, an independently developed Dreamcast exclusive that borrows heavily from the Bomberman series and is all about recreating the local multi-player sessions of old, but with a modern twist.
The final look of Alice Dreams Tournament. |
It was with this blueprint that developers Julien Desquenne and Nicolas Pochet launched a Kickstarter to get Alice Dreams Tournament turned into a reality; and the project quickly reached its meagre €8,000 target, finishing with a total of €28,000 from 374 backers (full disclosure - one of those 374 backers was me, along with several others from the Junkyard team).
How the earlier Alice Dreams game looked. |
A Rough Guide To Dreamcast Express
Marketing the Dreamcast brand was not strictly limited to stamping swirls on tea towels and mouse mats though - in Japan at least, Sega took things a little further by allowing gamers to sign up for a 'partner' service which furnished them with exclusive demo and preview discs. These could be played in their Dreamcasts and offered a sneak peek at future releases and featured exclusive bonus content that wasn't available anywhere else. This series of discs was called Dreamcast Express and seven volumes were released between 1999 and 2000, and they each comprise either a single or double GD set packed full of imaginatively-presented content.
A Closer Look At Dreameye
Nikkei Dreams: Business On The Dreamcast
While the Dreamcast is first and foremost an entertainment machine, the modem allowed Sega Japan to look beyond it's primary function and decide that the console should also be used for other, non-gaming purposes. For instance, the console was installed in Toyota car showrooms and a whole range of bespoke 'Doricatch Series' GDs were produced. These were little more than advertising demos for various Toyota vehicle models and are today some of the rarest examples of NTSC-J exclusive Dreamcast software on the planet.
New VMU Games On The Horizon?
Dreamcast pad working on Nintendo Switch
Happy Birthday Dreamcast Junkyard...
Well I was kind of waiting for the great Tomleecee to make his triumphant return with this post, as the 'Yard is his creation. However we are now two thirds of the way through this most festive of months, and so far no word... So I feel it is my bound duty, to mark this occasion in his absence, and raise a celebratory glass to my favourite website of all time, about the best console ever made!
Just looking back at the December 2005 archives, it is amazing to see how this place has grown, from it's humble beginnings to it's current Heavyweight Champion status. A small collection, including a console, two controllers, a couple of light guns and VMUs, and a handful of games, were the initial stash that inspired the site, historically and pictorially documented on Tom's technically challenged digital camera.
Since then through the magic of bloggery, we've been shown a stunning array of Dreamcast images, had an informative tutorial on the console's history, been linked to a host of fantastic sites and blogs, been shown a cinematic Dreamcast journey, courtesy of Google and Youtube and seen a plethora of games reviewed, dissected and compared. Added to that it's all been posted with a brilliant sense of humour, some eloquent prose, and some hilarious asides.
All of the Dreamcast peripherals have been considered and assessed. Unfinished Dreamcast developments of both hardware and software have been uncovered. Mods, emulation and homebrew have been flagged up, and highlighted. Dreamcast related humour, art, photos and film have all been promoted. What a blast!
If you're a regular visitor to the site, spend a few minutes trawling the archives for hidden gems you may have missed, or key in a few words of interest into the sites search facility. So many topics have been considered and presented, that it is becoming increasingly challenging to add new stuff!
The addition of the Gagaman(n) to the site's team, opened up an encyclopaedic world of knowledge about the console's hardware and software to the 'Yard. At once Tomleecee had a partner who was able to double the quantity of posts, providing excellent and insightful articles, but with a very different style of writing. Thus the range of documentation of this great console was increased.
His much coveted Dreamcast collection, also boosted the collective amount of Dreamcast exhibition items on display in our Virtual Museum.
I was lucky enough to become the third member of the team, at the end of August. Having discovered the 'Yard by simply typing 'Dreamcast' as a search word into Google, I was immediately hooked, on it's down to earth, Mancunian humour, occasional cynicism, but overall burning love for Sega's finest.
I became a regular commentor (more about this later), checking regularly and hungrily for each new post. Reviews helped me to make some informed choices as to which games I should buy.
Discoveries such as Bleem, the VMU tool (and indeed the fact that games could be played on the VMU), the hidden uses of the fishing rod peripheral, etc. were revolutionary for me in my awareness of the console's potential.
The comments of the site's readers and contributors have been an integral part of the DCJY's growth. Heroic names such as... son_et-lumiere, Pierre La Stank, Caleb, Deitrix, J, Gamer C, Ross and of course DCJY stalwarts Gnome and The Elderly Gamer (amongst others -BTW if you feel you deserve a mention, post a comment and I'll amend this epistle...) have fleshed out the bones of the articles posted on the site.
Highlights for me have been the afforementioned VMU tool post, the fact that a fishing rod peripheral can produce 'Wii' style gameplay on Soul Calibur, my first mention on a 'Yard post, (and indeed my first post on the 'Yard), finding links to the Elderly Gamer and The Gnome's Lair, watching all the good stuff posted on video links, Gagaman(n)'s post about oft repeated theme's in DC games, and above all the silliness factor... like Tom finding DC 'swirls' everywhere. Oh! and some of the frankly horrendous merchandising that accompanied this most wonderful of Sega produce.
And if none of the above makes sense to you, I urge you, nay command you, to check out a whole year's worth of blogging in the archives.
So at the end of this historic year, thanks to the DCJY's insight, I am able to come up with my top twenty Dreamcast games of all time... Apart from the top 3, they're in no particular order...
I hope that anyone reading this post will take the time to flag up theirs... They are as follows:
1.) Shenmue 1 & 2
2.) Soul Calibur
3.) Caution Seaman
4.) House Of The Dead 2/Typing Of The Dead
5.) Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
6.) Blue Stinger
7.) Super Runabout
8.) Sega Worldwide Soccer
9.) Crazy Taxi
10.) Virtua Tennis 1 & 2
11.) Sega Rally
12.) Jet Set Radio
13.) Dead Or Alive 2
14.) Confidential Mission
15.) Rez
16.) Vitrua Fighter 3tb
17.) Sega Marine Fishing
18.) Marvel vs. Capcom
19.) Outtrigger
20.) V Rally
But that's only the story so far... Hopefully, posting on the 'Yard will continue to shape and change that particular perspective.
Tomleecee took a chance making me a team member. Hopefully the gamble paid off. Being able to post has opened up a whole new world for me.
Fellow Bloggers have become comrades and colleagues, a few even friends. From being a team member on the 'Yard, I have also become a co-contributor to Gnome's Gaming On the Go, and finally spread my wings to produce the DCJY's little brother...the unimaginatively conceived Saturn Junkyard.
However, my favourite website of all time will remain this hallowed 'Yard.
And so , without further ado, raise your glasses and receive a toast for Tomleecee and his most esteemed of creations... "The Dreamcast Junkyard"....
Happy Birthday!