Show Report — Bristol Video Games Expo 2026

This past weekend I once again attended Bristol Video Games Expo; a gaming event hosted by friend of the Junkyard, Alex "The Sega Guru". Alex and his team have been hosting retro gaming events for a while now (you might remember our report of Nottingham Video Games Expo back in 2022) and every show just seems to get bigger and better.

If you've never attended an expo like this before, you can expect to enjoy a whole load of retro gaming goodness all crammed into one place. You've got retro game sellers (some independent, some bigger resellers), cosplay areas, retro game machines to play, new indie releases being demonstrated, and some really great talks and panels from different industry people.

Bristol Video Games Expo in full flow.

The Bristol show didn't disappoint. There was far too much goodness amongst the various tables in the hall for me to mention everything, but outside of the many traders, it was great to see John Riggs from Rigg'd Games there with Dreamcast copies of the excellent Chew Chew Mimic up for grabs. Debug were also in attendance, with a bounty of magazines and Dreamcast indie titles for sale. There was a great selection of brand new indie games from different systems being shown off, with Crisis Island —a twin-stick shooter that takes inspiration from Time Crisis— being my personal "best indie game of the show" winner.

One of my particular highlights of the entire event was seeing Duncan Gutteridge —the original artist of Sonic the Hedgehog— onsite to not only sell some brilliant signed Sonic artwork prints, but also give a live talk about how he got into the industry and ended up working for Sega; all whilst live illustrating Sonic on stage. Fantastic.

 Duncan Gutteridge, the original Sonic artist, during his live illustration.

As well as Duncan, the VGE team had lined up talks on the main stage from the likes of James Hannigan (BAFTA award winning game composer who worked on the likes of Runescape, Harry Potter, and Command and Conquer), Frank Gasking (author of the Games That Weren't book) and The Oliver Twins, who need no introduction! An eclectic mix of gaming personalities, all offering some great insight into the industry.

As for me, I picked up a few things; some retro reading material from The Gaming Newsagent, a few racing games on various consoles that I didn't already own, and two Dreamcast games for the collection; a PAL copy of Incoming and the Japanese version of Sega GT. 

My personal pickup haul from Bristol VGE.

As an aside, I'm constantly amazed at how well the Japanese seem to look after their games. Most I've picked up are always in incredible condition and when I popped open Sega GT, I was very happy to find some really cool stickers amongst the many original inserts as well!

Free car stickers with Sega GT!

All in all, I had a great day at Bristol VGE and I'm looking forward to the next one. VGE have events planned in Norfolk and Nottingham in the coming months, and it's worth checking out their website as they often add new events as the year rolls on.

If you're a retro gaming fan and you've yet to experience an expo like this, I'd wholeheartedly recommend attending one. Entry tickets are around the cost of a couple of cups of coffee, and you'll have a blast playing some games, adding a few trinkets to your collection and, perhaps the best thing: meeting a whole load of likeminded people.

Marc, The Gaming Newsagent, with a selection of magazines and books.

The Oliver Twins take centre stage.

Indie developers showing off their latest releases to the public.

Segagaga has Finally Been Translated into English — Here's How to Play It (and How it was Achieved!)

The headline you see above is not some form of freaky clickbait, nor is it a two-month-early April Fool’s prank. It is, however, signalling one of the biggest pieces of Sega Dreamcast news that we will probably ever report here on this website. Some thought it would never happen, but the day has finally arrived: Segagaga is now playable in English, thanks to the work of a team of dedicated fans led by Exxistance. If you just want to know how to play the translation, skip to the end of this article, where you will find a link to a download and instructions on how to apply the patch to your existing disc image of Segagaga. But we felt it was important to document the technical feats which made this holy-grail translation possible — and to ensure that those responsible receive the recognition they deserve. So read on if you want to learn more!

If you’ve spent more than ten minutes in Dreamcast fan circles, you’ll undoubtedly be aware of Segagaga, a 2001 Japan-exclusive RPG that tasks players with running Sega as it tries to regain market share against its main competitor, DOGMA (Sony, basically). Developed by Hitmaker and published by Sega, the game is well known for its wacky humour (much of it at Sega’s own expense) as well as its abundance of references to the company’s past IPs. Because of this, Segagaga has retained an almost mythical quality among Western Dreamcast fans, and from the moment it became clear the game wouldn’t be released outside of Japan, it has without a doubt been the most anticipated English translation of any game in the console’s library.

But as I'm sure you're aware, Segagaga's translation journey has been wrought with roadblocks. Many projects have started up over the years, only to inevitably fizzle out. But as we previously mentioned at the top of our interview with Segagaga’s creator, Tez Okano, the reason for the game’s multiple-decade stint in translation hell wasn’t due to a shortage of skilled translators capable of handling its distinctly Japanese humour, but rather a series of daunting technical hurdles.

The primary challenge stemmed from Segagaga's use of the Dreamcast’s BIOS font, as editing it was thought to be impossible for the longest time. What's more, the game only supported Shift-JIS encoding for text, a common two-byte format for Japanese language that was widely used in video games of the era (and still is today, though typically alongside ASCII or UTF support). Without changing the game to retrieve narrower Latin alphabet characters from the BIOS instead, the original Shift-JIS would leave the in-game text looking horrible, and too big to fit in numerous places.

Demonstration of Shift-JIS encoding, provided by Derek Pascarella.

By contrast, many other Japanese Dreamcast titles rely on their own internal font sheets, unique to each game, meaning that savvy hackers can go in and swap a Japanese font sheet for an English one, adjusting spacing between characters, along with other necessary tweaks. Because of this, these games were able to see successful translations much sooner, and form the majority of past fan translations we've seen for the console over the years. 

After two decades of unsuccessful attempts at translating Segagaga, it was time to bring in the big guns. Cracking a technical nut this tough required a meeting of some of the most talented minds the Dreamcast scene has to offer, including megavolt85, mr.nobody, VincentNL, Derek Pascarella, and madsheep. If it weren’t for them, I can only imagine how much longer it would have taken for us to see this translation become a reality… perhaps another decade?

In steps megavolt85, hacker extraordinaire, who was one of two previously responsible for making it possible for Atomiswave games to be ported to Dreamcast. On megavolt's input, Derek Pascarella explains:

"megavolt85 modified Segagaga to interpret ASCII, the single-byte encoding commonly used for the Latin alphabet. Not only that, but he modified the game to read from the ASCII section of the BIOS font, rather than the Shift-JIS section."

The next step was to make it so that ASCII from the BIOS could be edited. This was where Derek worked his magic, and shares how he made it happen:

"Segagaga speaks directly to the Dreamcast’s BIOS when it comes time to render text on screen. After megavolt85 did all of the assembly hacking to force the game to interpret ASCII-encoded text and then pull from the ASCII section of the BIOS font (rather than Shift-JIS), I started poking around a bit to see how it all worked. What I discovered is that the game actually copies the entirety of the BIOS font into RAM pretty near the location where the game executable ends! So, I disabled the assembly code that performed this copy, then also disabled the code that null’d out that portion of RAM before doing the copy. I then appended the BIOS font to the end of the game executable, and just like that, the font data was precisely where the game expected it to be, and it could be modified! This came in handy a number of times as font glyphs needed tweaking for optimal appearance."

See how much better ASCII looks in comparison:

Demonstration of ASCII encoding, provided by Derek Pascarella.

It appeared that the first-documented Segagaga translation patch project —which began in 2006— did manage to make progress in this regard, but unfortunately wouldn't see an update past 2013. While nothing technical from that previous project would make it into this one, project lead and texture artist Exxistance reveals that he was still able to utilise a wealth of other archived community resources.

"What was helpful [...] were the various artefacts people left on the internet, including the FAQs on GameFAQs that were created back in the mid-00s. Those were especially useful in helping me get my bearings as I initially worked through the game. Other helpful resources included The1Ross’ Open Source Translation Project, as well as various YouTube videos like Korone’s full playthrough of the game."

It was actually on a Dreamcast-Talk forum thread initially created to share The1Ross' project, where Exxistance would post his English-translated edits of Segagaga's textures. From there, mr.nobody —who previously worked on the English fan translation of Dreamcast horror title Seven Mansions— would get in contact with Exxistance.

This Peter Moore interview from E3 2000 features some intriguing background details

As I was trawling YouTube t'other day, an interesting video appeared on my feed. Amongst the usual walkthroughs on how to check motorcycle valve clearances and (totally warranted) rants about the rising price of PC hardware, an intriguing compilation of interviews from E3 popped up. Titled simply 'E3 2000 Los Angeles,' the video is a collection of interviews and rushes shot at the Electronic Entertainment Expo which took place between the 11th and 13th May 2000 at the Los Angeles Convention Centre. The video was uploaded by a channel named The RAW Footage, which seems to publish unedited 'behind the scenes' clips from a range of media events, conventions, movie promotions and the like.

Where the magic happened. Image credit: SEGA Retro 

The thing that makes this video particularly interesting to me, apart from it being shot at E3 in the early, hope-filled days of the Dreamcast's natural lifespan, is a segment which begins at 20:25 and features an interview with Sega of America head honcho (and one-time DreamPod special guest) Peter Moore. The video doesn't say which outlet conducted the interview, and there is no watermark or any other identifying information - as the name of the channel suggests, this really is raw footage. In the segment, which you can view below, Peter talks candidly about the threat of the PlayStation 2 and the importance of online gaming to Sega's strategy for the Dreamcast in the face of such stiff competition from Sony's impending juggernaut. What really caught my attention though, is the big screen visible over Peter's right shoulder.

Throughout the interview, Dreamcast game footage plays out and anyone on the show floor who took the time to glance up at the gigantic display would have no doubt been mesmerised by the awesome lineup of titles being beamed into their retinas. Seaman, Space Channel 5, Deer Avenger, Half-Life, SWAT3, Game Room...hold up! Yes you read that right - this promo video shows footage of Dreamcast games that never actually released, yet they were being shown at E3 to try to garner interest in the system. 

Now, some of these games we have featured here at the Junkyard over the years, and some of them have actually been dumped online since those halcyon days: Dreamcast Half-Life is freely available online at this point; Deer Avenger gained some notoriety several years ago when a disc containing the game was discovered in a box in a basement and it eventually ended up in the hands of our good friend Adam Koralik; and SWAT 3 was announced for Dreamcast and subsequently cancelled (and as far as I know, a playable build has never seen the light of day). 

The one game shown on that screen presents the biggest question mark, is Game Room. In development by Sierra Sports (a subsidiary of Sierra Entertainment) it was intended to be a compendium of online-compatible mini games, with pool, darts and pinball featured, similar to the PAL exclusive microphone-bundled Planet Ring. 

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 there. Nice.

From what I can tell, Game Room was actually released on PC and utilised the Maximum Pool engine, but the Dreamcast port was cancelled along with the majority of the other Sierra properties that were announced. Like SWAT 3, whatever actually exists of Game Room for Dreamcast has never been leaked online, and there's very little information about how far along the game was before it was hoofed spectacularly into the gaping maw of gaming anti-history. Here's a better look at the footage shown in the background of uncle Peter's interview segment:

It's pretty clear that Sierra Entertainment had big plans for the Dreamcast, and had a number of titles in development before they ditched support for the platform. There are numerous games, including Game Room listed in this press release from around the exact time of E3 2000, and they did actually release two titles for the Dreamcast in Maximum Pool and Hoyle Casino. Indeed, the back cover of the Hoyle Casino manual even features a full page promo for Game Room, so you'd be forgiven for thinking its release was pretty much nailed on before the proverbial plug was pulled.

The back page of the Hoyle Casino NTSC-U manual.

As an aside, after Peter Moore's section there follows an interview on the E3 show floor with John Golden, former Director of Product Marketing at Sega of America, during which he waxes lyrical about the majesty of Samba de Amigo and the Dreamcast maraca controllers. The man clearly has exquisite taste (as well as an absolutely ballin' moustache, specs and tie combo), and the segment is well worth a modicum of your attention.

John was only 19 when this photo was taken. True story.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this rather fascinating and whimsical glimpse into the past. This video literally popped up on my feed by pure chance, so if you ever needed proof that we live in a simulation, this is it. Probably. Anyway, if you know anything about Game Room, or indeed what became of it (information on the Dreamcast port - as mentioned ad nauseum - is very hard to find), please do pipe up in the comments!

Special thanks to Lewix Cox for his help in digging up some of the sources in this article.

The Final Days of Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK) and What Happened to Issue 22

As I bid 2025 farewell to the tune of the traditional New Year's Eve song Auld Lang Syne, I contemplated the lyrics and their theme about leaving things in the past. I promptly disregarded that message and continued to write for a blog about a console that was discontinued 24 years ago. 

But that idea of "farewells" sparked an idea — one that taps into a new collecting obsession I fell into in 2025. You see, I developed a bit of a bug for tracking down old Dreamcast magazines, specifically ones that were published in the UK. Although I was able to frequently play the Sega Dreamcast during its commercial heyday round a friend's house, I was probably too young for the magazines of the time to cross my radar, and even if they had, I probably would've been too busy reading the Beano and Dandy to care.

Anyhow, last year I managed to pick up several bundles of assorted issues of Official Dreamcast Magazine, Dreamcast Magazine (the unofficial one), and DC-UK. I quickly noticed a common thread with these lots, however. While I did manage to acquire some earlier issues in them, the majority consisted of each magazine's final entries. It seemed that the sellers were particularly keen to offload these last issues — and upon reading them, it was easy to see why.

As the death knell rang for the Dreamcast with Sega’s announcement of its discontinuation and their intentions to develop games for rival systems, there was a clear scramble from these magazines to reassure their readers that the console still had plenty of epic games on the horizon. As the issues wore on, however, the cracks began to show. The number of games reviewed in each issue dwindled, features became steadily less inspired, and page counts shrank. In the most egregious cases, past reviews were simply reprinted in a desperate attempt to pad out pages.

Of course, this strange editorial limbo couldn't last forever, and eventually each of these magazines would come to accept that the Dreamcast’s fate was a doomed one, and sail off into the sunset — most of them rather unceremoniously. Next issues were promised, but never came. Only one publication, Paragon Publishing's unofficial Dreamcast Magazine, managed to last long enough to earn itself the privilege of a proper send-off.

In what I hope to be an ongoing series, I will be taking a look at how each of the UK's Dreamcast magazines said their farewells —or didn’t— with an additional goal of uncovering what went wrong behind the scenes for those that ended prematurely. You know we love solving a mystery here at the Junkyard.

To start off, I'll be taking a look at Dennis Publishing's officially licensed offering, Official Dreamcast Magazine. Its final issue, issue 21, was released in June 2001.

My scan!

The issue hit newsstands sporting a rather fitting PAL-blue cover featuring Sega’s iconic spiky mascot. Like the rest of the magazine, the cover is clean as hell — and perfectly timed to coincide with the mag’s review of Sonic Adventure 2. Readers would have also found Volume 22 of the Dream On demo disc adorning this issue's cover, which was responsible for its premium £4.99 price tag.

Depending on where you were in your Dreamcast journey, this demo disc may have proved to be either a blessing, or slightly disappointing. Rather than including playable previews of the latest upcoming titles, the 22nd instalment of Dream On served as a "best-of" compilation, packing in demos for nine Dreamcast bangers. These included Jet Set Radio, Metropolis Street Racer, Sonic Adventure, Virtua Tennis, Space Channel 5, Toy Commander, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, Ready 2 Rumble, and Ultimate Fighting Championship. Seeing as all nine of these games were voted into our Top 200 Dreamcast games list, with the majority of them ranking inside the top 30, it was a well-curated selection, and maybe even well timed for any new Dreamcast adopters who had picked up the console following its price drop to £99.99 earlier that year. If you were a long-time ODM reader, though, you may well have played a fair few of these titles already thanks to the magazine’s high review scores, and were perhaps instead expecting demos for the brand-new Sonic Adventure 2 or Crazy Taxi 2. If that were the case, you might have been left feeling a bit miffed.

Credit: Chromagi

The magazine's editor, Warren Chrismas, made the reasoning for this demo selection clear in his note at the front of the issue. While he began by calling out the "gloom merchants" for insisting the Dreamcast was dead and buried months before —citing the high quality of both Sonic Adventure 2 and Crazy Taxi 2 as a reason for fans of the console to remain excited— this positive tone was soon contradicted by the sobering reality of Sega's situation.

Dreamcast New Years Resolutions 2026

Console photo credit: 20th Century Video Games

It’s nearing December as I sit down to write this at my typewriter... an opening that is actually just two lies as I am obviously not using a typewriter and I am actually lying in bed.

However, as the year is drawing to a close, I am reminded that I once made a deal with the Devil to be part of the Dreamcast Junkyard team and in 2025 I have contributed less than Floigan Bros did to the 3D mascot platformer genre.

So to appease the Devil and make sure I meet my yearly quota of content to satiate Dreamcast fans, here are my Sega Dreamcast 2026 resolutions that I wish to share with thee...

Credit: Sonic Wiki Zone

The Dreamcast Junkyard video game book club will return!

Yes, okay, that was a stupid name for an entirely video-based chat about video games and not books, but the premise itself was a sound one. We would announce the game we were going to discuss ahead of the actual stream and then people would join the chat to share their memories and ask questions. It’s actually been four years since the 11th —and as of now, final episode— which was actually just a badly lit stream of me playing Sonic Adventure badly, without any game audio. Anyway, I plan to make at least one more episode in 2026. Feel free to tell your loved ones it's back!

“Hey, Honey! Guess what? That thing no one wanted is returning!”

From our Sega GT stream

To Play Crazy Taxi 2 for at least 30 minutes. 

Is that a weird one? It might be. Crazy Taxi is one of my most beloved Dreamcast games and is responsible for some of my favourite memories with the console. The Dreamcast is actually the only console that has been an ever-present fixture of my gaming setup since I got it. I played it constantly from receiving it at Christmas to leaving for university in September 2000, and it joined me throughout my three years living in Cheltenham at various places, even as I regularly moved other consoles back and forth between student life and my parents' home on a whim. When I did finally return home in 2003, the Dreamcast was a key part of battling what I now see was a form of depression fuelled by a lack of direction. Then it was packed up once again to join me for my move to Sheffield in 2005 where it, and I, have remained since. That original Dreamcast was actually packed away for a few years as it wasn’t working, but it has since been revived and continues to loudly and proudly play discs to this day.

Despite all this, and having now owned several different copies of Crazy Taxi 2, I’ve never played it for longer than about 10 minutes before ultimately stopping and just returning to the original. Will 2026 be the year I finally give this sequel an actual shot? Especially as it’s not like I am actually any good at the original, it's merely familiarity and memories that bring me back, so maybe it's finally time to make some new ones.

Credit: LaunchBox Games Database

To buy the Hello Kitty Dreamcast...

The Hello Kitty Dreamcast is an insanely ace looking console that I have loved since I first laid my eyes upon it, despite still not really knowing what Hello Kitty actually is. I have seen the video where the creators claim she is actually not a cat but a little girl, and that seems like fantastic banter to me to say about something that is quite clearly a cat — and that honestly just adds to its charm a little.

The Dreamcast and its many variants aren’t getting any cheaper. In fact, it is probably cheaper now to buy even a fully modded Dreamcast than any modern consoles, so would I rather have a PlayStation 5 I don’t have time to play on, or the Hello Kitty Dreamcast? I look forward to constantly telling people “she isn’t actually a cat a you know…” when they ask me what the hell it is. 

Credit: Hit-Japan

...and play Giant Killers Season 2 on it!

It’s dawning on me that a huge amount of my contributions to the Junkyard are things nobody wanted, but did anyone say Giant Killers career playthrough Season 2?! Someone somewhere must have… maybe you there in the back? For those unaware, this was a series of YouTube videos I fired out a few years ago known as "The Premier League Replacement service" as it was while the World Cup was going on. Apparently, I don't see the need for brevity with my naming conventions. I probably won’t dress as a goal keeper again for one of the episodes this time, mind. It’s pretty much led to my new life predominantly playing Football games and sims over on YouTube, so I think it makes sense that I return to my roots and do it here for a spell again. Don’t act like that hasn’t already made your 2026!

I actually don't remember why I dressed like this.

Play the top 25 games of the Top 200 Dreamcast Games list.

Okay, specifically five of them. I famously don’t particularly like Rez, but there are five games in the top 25 that I have basically never played. I've tried Grandia II in the past and it didn’t click with me, but am counting it here as I can never remember if that’s the game with a talking parrot that I hated or not, which is probably a sign I didn’t give it a proper chance.

The other games include Sonic Adventure 2 and Skies of Arcadia, both of which feel a bit crazy to admit I've never played as someone who is constantly beating the drum for Dreamcast.

Credit: LaunchBox Games Database

***

So there we have it. Would you ever get an article this obtuse and all over the place from Ai? Well, probably actually, but it wouldn’t be able to so easily back it up with links to previous videos and works, plus added memories of handing out cupcakes at events.

So with 2026 nearing, what are you looking forward Dreamcast wise? Regardless of if you are a die hard, new fan, or returning to the scene, what would be your resolutions to make sure you are still Dreamcasting in 2026?

Joy to the Swirl: A Festive Feast of Christmas(ish) Dreamcast Games

This post has been updated and expanded from a version that was originally published in 2024. Enjoy!

This time of year the barrage of shopping, crowds, attention-thieving ads, and obnoxious mall displays can take their toll. Their cacophony of superficial Christmas chaos drowns the soul. 

Approaching my wits' end, I try to slow down and reclaim the seasonal spirit in whatever small ways I can muster. First there's the traditional stuff: the Christmas markets; the Griswold family antics; the catching up with friends over pints...

Before long, it's time for the festive video games.

I'll start with playing the obvious ones: Restoring cheer to Twin Seeds City in Christmas NiGHTS. Scaling the giant snowman in Banjo Kazooie's Freezeezy Peak. Mario dropping the baby penguin off a cliff...

It'sa wholesome holiday tradition!

Inevitably, I'll boot up my Dreamcast and really kick the season into high gear. Sega's swansong console is blessed with a multitude of titles which radiate a festive aura in one sense or another. Some are decked with Christmas cheer, others are dusted with wintry snowscapes, and a few simply relish in escapist revelry. Whatever the case, I thought I'd take a stroll through the platform's jolly games in this blog post. Settle in, grab a hot beverage, and huddle up to the warmth of your Dreamcast fan…

***

Blue Stinger 

Ditching any semblance of survival horror, Blue Stinger stirs a cocktail of action/beat ‘em up, B-movie camp, and Yuletide vibrancy. And that understates how hard it goes on all counts.

 

Whether you crave gory fisticuffs or holiday cheer, Blue Stinger indulges in both and spares all nuance. Want to obliterate Dinosaur Island’s mutant folk? Its vending machines dispense a feast of gatling guns, rocket launchers, lightsabers, and stun rods (my personal favorite) for your destructive delight. Need a jolt of merriment? It’ll bury you in an avalanche of neon snowmen, chipper earworms, and bizarre Pen Pen cameos. There are no half measures in Blue Stinger and God bless it for that.

Hassy Holidays, everyone!

In all, Blue Stinger embodies holiday excess and it will charm the shit out of you if you open your heart to its violent revelry.

Anyway, I’ll move on as I've spilled plenty more ink championing Blue Stinger as a highlight of the Dreamcast’s festive offerings and its library in general. We also celebrated it on the Dreamcast Junkyard's DreamPod Episode 137 and The Sega Lounge Episode 282, two podcast episodes fully dedicated to Shinya Nishigaki and Climax Graphics’ immortal holiday classic.

Christmas moral: We can brute force our way to Christmas cheer with a little kung fu and napalm.

Beverage pairing: Hassy & vodka

Dessert pairing: Gingerbread dinosaurs

Song pairing: This song on loop for 10 hours

Cool Boarders Burrrn! (NTSC-J) / Snow Surfers (PAL) / Rippin’ Riders (NTSC-U)

UEP System's Dreamcast snowboarding game sports a different title in each region but I've always appreciated their common commitment to alliteration. The game itself, though? Eh — 

My expectations were likely overblown by the spoils of other turn-of-the-millennium snowboarding games. I've always balked at Snow Surfers' relative rigidity. It affords limited potential for exploration and improvisation which contrasts unflatteringly against the expressive freedom of SSX, Amped, and Steep Slope Sliders. 

I still revisit Cool Boarders Burrrn! each winter, hoping to somehow enjoy it more than I traditionally have. The checkpoint timers are unforgiving and tricks are restricted to a handful of dedicated launch points (a la other Cool Boarders games). Each run offers just a couple viable approaches, yet — only recently — I've felt compelled to keep retrying them to improve my best times and trick scores. There's a certain hook there.

Decades onward, and unmoored from the shadow of its contemporaries, I've found a merry little game in Snow Surfers. With some persistence, carving the slopes feels refreshingly kinetic and the chill beats, nifty set pieces, and wintery village locales are charming as hell. It only took a couple of decades but Cool Boarders Burrrn! is beginning to feel a lot like a toasty tradition in its own right.

Christmas moral: Something...patience...something, something. Also, alliteration is alright.

Beverage pairing: Jingle Juice with Mountain Dew

Dessert pairing: Christmas crumble

Song pairing: "Walking in a Winter Wonderland"

Shenmue

AM2’s classic Santa stalking simulator needs no introduction here. I’ll just say that few things feel as cozy as moseying around Dobuita's bustling streets at Christmastime with the snow crunching under Ryo's sneakers. Tailing Santa around town, It's always amusing to see him peddle local boozers to underage teenagers before imbibing at them himself. Ryo can't stay out too late, though. Ine-san will worry and he still has to wake up early for his forklift job on Christmas Day. 

On a related note, Mark's pre-shift forklift races are mandatory but don't pay jack squat. That's bullshit.

Christmas moral: Unionize.

Beverage pairing: Milk

Dessert pairing: Nothing. Ryo doesn’t eat food in Shenmue because he is a ryobot

Song pairing: “Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)” by Harvey Danger

Inside the Machine: The Making of NBA 2K and NFL 2K for Sega Dreamcast

I sat down with two original NBA 2K and NFL 2K engineers to learn how they helped build the two iconic sports games and I ask: can 2K Sports make a return to NFL greatness?

Moore’s Law, as described by scientist Michio Kaku in his 2023 book Quantum Supremacy, speaks to the concept that “computer power doubles every eighteen months.” But perhaps with an exception — the Sega Dreamcast seemingly defied Moore’s Law when it debuted in 1999. Game titles NBA 2K and NFL 2K for the Sega Dreamcast by studio Visual Concepts looked and played like sports gaming in a new medium.

Based on Sega’s NAOMI architecture, the Dreamcast would offer a glimpse of what advanced computational processing and graphics processors are capable of today. The Dreamcast offered buttery smooth frame rates, and was one of the first machines to offer competitive online sports gaming. Even more, Sega Sports, with its slow-motion instant replay systems and its patented 2K-camera bokeh, created the illusion that the 2K Sports world was alive — and I wanted to learn more about how these games were made.

I spoke with two different tools engineers on the original NBA 2K and NFL 2K development teams to learn about the technical, translational nature to their work on what was the new Sega Dreamcast hardware. What follows is a rare, unexpected, and deeply technical look inside the original 2K Sports, exploring how Sega and Visual Concepts created the foundation of NBA 2K and NFL 2K.

Custom Tools Engineering and Maya

The first topic of conversation was custom tools engineering. What are custom tools in game development and why are they important? Visual Concept’s tools engineers built custom solutions to smooth out animations, lighting, and graphics when those assets were built in the Maya software suite and ultimately migrated to the final game engine environment. I discuss those topics first with 2K Engineer One.

DCJY: May I ask if you worked on gameplay or designed tools for the games?

2K Engineer (One): I was a tools engineer, mainly writing exporters and customizations for Maya. As far as I can recall, at the time VC did not have dedicated design staff. Design was done primarily by engineers and artists. Greg and Scott, the founders, also contributed to design.

Excellent. What kind of exporters and customizations for Maya? Anything gameplay oriented or for ratings, or for visuals? Player ratings are usually very mysterious for sports games players.

2K Engineer (One): Exporters were mainly about modeling and animation. Modeling includes level design, e.g. stadiums, lighting, and character design. Character animation started as mocap data, which always needs a lot of cleanup. For example, mocap will typically clamp rotations to +/-180 degrees; that can result in a discontinuity when the source data crosses the threshold. Things like the peak of a sinusoidal wave that crossed the limit will be snapped 360 degrees to the other side. Mathematically they are equivalent, but it’s confusing to see, and can introduce sampling errors along the discontinuities.

So I’d create Maya plugins that would automate curve clean-up, or to apply various lighting tricks, or other things to automate tedious work that artists and animators would encounter. Sometimes I might add custom user data to the elements in Maya; these would tend to be more design oriented. Ultimately it would all get exported in formats that could be consumed by the game engine.

Things like player stats were tabular, maybe done in Excel. I don’t remember specifically, but that would make sense.

Thanks for this breakdown. I think this explains a lot of things that come up in games, like clipping, and various quirky animations that need those custom solutions.

Editor’s Note:

The turn of the millennium gave way to the rise of 3D sports gaming and powerful hardware. With better hardware technology, new software was developed to take advantage of the new capabilities that the Dreamcast now offered. With new software came new programming languages, new disciplines, and the demand for cross-disciplinary skilled workers to make sense of it all.

Tools engineers and technical artists would prove to be a key for Sega Sports and Visual Concepts in maximizing the Dreamcast’s capabilities from launch.

20 Years of The Dreamcast Junkyard

I was just going to ask ChatGPT to write me a post about this and add some fuel to the ever-churning AI slop engine that now both powers the internet and pushes RAM prices to cataclysmic levels; but as I was about to click 'generate,' I was visited by a ghastly apparition. The spectre that appeared before my very eyes was a scruffy, hungover urchin uttering barely coherent gibberish about GD-Rom drive emulation, hi-tech VMUs with colour screens, countless new independently developed games, wireless Dreamcast controllers and revitalised online servers. Disgusted by its unkempt appearance, I tried to waft the unspeakable phantom's form away with a swipe of my hand. It was then that I realised that I was actually seeing my own image reflected in my monitor.

Shocked and appalled by what I had witnessed, I promptly closed ChatGPT (other shite slop generators are available) and came to my senses. The 'this' I mention in the opening sentence of this post — and alluded to by the title — is the realisation that yes, we have indeed been here for twenty years. Two decades of Dreamcast-related nonsense here at The Dreamcast Junkyard. And lo, I thought that was worth waffling on about for a bit. Well, waffling in text form. You get the idea.

Before I continue though, just for shits and gigs, I did actually ask a popular AI thing what it knew about this very blog. I know this is super cringe, and the modern day equivalent of Googling yourself or putting yourself on Hot or Not to see if your face does indeed look like a three week old jack-o'-lantern that's been left in the sun...but let's just have a bit of fun here. So, what does...er...Gemini think The Dreamcast Junkyard is? 

Here's what it projectile vomited:

That's a great question! The Dreamcast Junkyard is a well-known, independent, and passionate online collective dedicated to the Sega Dreamcast console.

Here is a breakdown of what they do:

• Online Hub for Fans: It's considered a leading source for news, reviews, retrospectives, and everything else related to Sega's final console, which was discontinued in 2001 but still enjoys a dedicated fan base.
• Content Focus: They produce a variety of content, including:
• Reviews and Articles: Deep dives into both classic Dreamcast games and new, commercially released indie/homebrew titles.
• The DreamPod Podcast: A podcast that focuses on Dreamcast culture, collecting, the community, and general retro gaming topics.
• Hardware Coverage: They often look into Dreamcast peripherals, different console variations, and preservation efforts.
• Passion Project: The site started as a personal blog in 2005 by a fan named Tom Charnock and has grown into a collaborative, not-for-profit effort run by a team of dedicated enthusiasts.

In short, it's a thriving online community that keeps the spirit and excitement for the Sega Dreamcast alive and well!

As if to demonstrate how utterly unhinged these AI models are, and to further illustrate why we absolutely do not need this bullshit, the gushing nature of this response actually makes me feel a bit embarrassed. Also, I'm aware that copying and pasting that garbage back into this blog is only going to add to the ever-decreasing circle of content scraping depravity that these LLMs engage in...but at this point the internet is so far removed from the one that existsed back in 2005 when I started this blog, that its a bit of a moot point.

You can probably tell from this opening gambit that I'm no fan of AI, and I apologise for even using it to try and be funny (I'm not). Interesting that the whole 'It's Thinking' US Dreamcast campaign leaned so hard into the whole 'Dreamcast is so advanced it knows what you're going to do' thing. But I've digressed again...so let's get back on track. It's been twenty years since my first post here at the 'Yard — a blog I started because I was insufferably bored. I'd recently got back into the Dreamcast, and I'd been engrossed by resources such as Dreamcast Scene et al and thought I might take a stab at just making a personal blog about buying all the Dreamcast games I could find now (then) that had become super cheap.

2005 was a very different time in the world of Dreamcast. The console was essentially in the bin; the Xbox and PS2 and GameCube were the stars of the show and Dreamcast games, consoles and peripherals were on sale —at least here in the UK— for literal pence. Nobody wanted or gave a shit about the Dreamcast, outside of those spaces on the internet such as the aforementioned DCS and similar hotspots of the fandom. When I first started this blog, I never intended it to be any more than a personal diary where I recounted buying up all the old games I'd previously owned, while casting an eye over the ones I'd never had the opportunity to experience the first time around. I didn't set out for anyone to read it, I had no expectations at all. It was simply a thing for me to exercise my limited creativity, try to replicate the actual games journalists I'd grown up reading in magazines, and just have a bit of fun. I never for one moment thought I'd be here, twenty years hence, writing this drivel on a blog that has — as surprised as I am to realise it — become something of a cornerstone of the very community I looked up to in the first place. For that, I am truly grateful.

But it was not, and never has been a solo endeavour (well, apart from those first few months where I simply amused myself by writing slightly unhinged posts about stuff only tangentially related to the Dreamcast). Many talented individuals have graced the pages of this blog and not only served the memory of the Dreamcast, but have gone on to be highly successful in other fields. There have been events held in person, I've somehow been invited to write for esteemed magazines and books and launched a podcast (and been a guest on other podcasts) even though I can barely string a coherent sentence together.

What I guess I'm trying to say here, is that this whole thing isn't about me. It's about you — the ones here reading this right now. You, the people with the skills and knowledge and knowhow and enduring curiosity and love for the Dreamcast. The hardware, the software, the endless possibilities when it comes to engineering new limitless solutions which keep this platform alive. The ones who buy the indie games, post online, make YouTube videos, chat about recently discovering the Dreamcast and asking which games you should buy. To you I take my hat off — you keep the dream alive. I have done nothing really, but report on what you do while simultaneously being a spectator and a commentator on what awesome people can achieve with awesome ideas and awesome hardware. I'm just a fan, as it were. 

I've not been alone in keeping The Dreamcast Junkyard going for the last couple of decades; there have been many people who have exhibited their talents on the pages of this blog, on the podcast, on the YouTube channel and on our social media accounts. I'm not going to list them all, but they know who they are. So yeah, here we are, in 2025 still keeping the fires burning and below are some nice comments from people who have either consumed the content produced by the team here over the years, produced the content themselves, or are friends we met along the way. And I might add, if you want to skip the following messages, you might want to scroll down to the bottom to see what we have planned to celebrate this milestone outside of this simple blog post.

Some nice words from real people who are definitely not AI

James Harvey (DCJY): "As someone who read the Junkyard from the very beginning, it was a surreal honour to finally meet Tom and become a part of this wonderful team. Twenty years covering the greatest console ever, and we still have new things to talk about every month!"

Laurence Goodchild (DCJY): "The fact that the Junkyard has been kicking out articles for two decades on a strictly independent and non-profit basis is a huge achievement. No grifting, no clickbait, no shilling, and a messy website that actually maintains some character in a sea of monotony. I bloody love it. Hopefully the DIY ethos and community spirit can be sustained by future generations of volunteers."

Lewis Cox (DCJY): "The Junkyard is a pillar of the Dreamcast community, and I think I speak for many fans when I say it's a pivotal stop on anyone's Dreamcast fanboy journey. I was absolutely stoked when Tom asked me to join the site in 2018. Fast-forward a few years and I’m deep into writing deep dives and recording the podcast — and loving every minute of it. I’m honoured to be one of the people helping to keep this wonderful website alive, and grateful to Tom for allowing me to take on more of an administrative role as he roams the rain-soaked country roads of the United Kingdom on his motorbike. I can’t believe it’s been 20 years, let's make it 20 more!"

Mike Phelan (DCJY Alumni): "Longevity is a rare commodity nowadays. Fads rise and fall, what is ‘hot’ and indeed what is ‘not’ changes on a near daily basis in a world where information bounces around at light speed and ‘trending’ and ‘viral’ have become bywords for our collective inability for things to keep our interest. Against that, a little blog started 20 years ago has stood the test of time. Outlasting Sega’s own time in the home console market, one site has kept the fires burning for a machine that has proven to be a true gaming underdog. What started as one man’s Dreamcast journey has morphed into a hub of information, a community of like-minded nostalgic gamers passionate both about the past and shining a light on a niche, underground scene still brimming with life. In doing so, it differentiated itself from ‘other’ gaming sites — a very British sense of humour, never afraid to tell it how it is and a self-deprecating ability to never take itself too seriously.

"There’s been ups and downs; a podcast listened to by thousands, panels at gaming conventions, exclusive, exciting ‘breaking news’, interviews with DC legends; many have passed through the hallowed halls of the Junkyard, some continue the fight for recognition of the swirl, others now content with the occasional re-emergence and more still faded into the midsts of time. Friends have been made, enemies too I’m sure (the Wild West days of the DCJY Facebook Group certainly were interesting!) but the Junkyard perseveres.

"My own favourite memories of the Junkyard start before I even came on board. It was a site that I discovered not long after getting back into the machine (2007-ish? My memory, unlike the DCJY, has faded with the years); Tom and the early apostles of the DCJY scripture were beacons of a shared love for the little machine of dreams. I watched as it morphed into something bigger than Tom surely ever imagined. I remember recording a podcast dockside in Bristol, interrupted intermittently by the sounds of a train; representing the ‘Yard in the Vegas of the North, myself and Tom sharing a panel with Dreamcast luminaries in a moment that still feels slightly surreal. The chaos of podcast recording, the joy of reading articles ranging from ultra informative to downright anarchic, and of course the infamous Dreamcast Junkyard Ultimate Collectors Guide. I will forever be grateful to Tom for helping to get the first version of the guide out into a physical form; it started with a random email to a site I held as the epitome of the Dreamcast scene and ended with a cease and desist from SEGA.

"Today the Junkyard remains as strong as ever. The captain may have changed — now steered through treacherous waters by Lewis with a fresh crew of Dreamcast zealots (Lewis and the Dreamcastanauts? Would make a great name for a pop-punk band), it continues to present insightful commentary and news in its own way. Here's to 20 years more —and beyond— of The Dreamcast Junkyard!”

Aaron 'Animated AF!' Foster (DCJY Alumni): "Surely it's not been 20 years, right? Now I think about it, it does feel like quite a while ago since I was walking down to my nearest GameStation to nab a few more two for a fiver Dreamcast games! My memory is pretty fuzzy about how exactly I stumbled upon the Dreamcast Junkyard back then, but when I did I was enamoured to find Tom doing the same GameStation trek and documenting it, so much so that I wanted to join in! This was in a point of my life where I was really starting to find my voice online and the wonders of tech like YouTube meant I could start even showing people silly stuff like playing Virtua Tennis with a fishing controller and talking about how blowy-shitty-uppy Bangai-O was! The Dreamcast console still holds a special place in my heart and most of that is due of the wonderful community that grew from this at-the-time humble little blog! Cheers! *clink*"

James Brown (Shenmue Dojo): "The Dreamcast Junkyard has been my go to retro gaming website and podcast for as long as I can remember now, consistently keeping me connected to the wonderful world that was SEGA’s swan song console. It’s been my main source of news and allows me to keep in touch with all of the inner workings of the Dreamcast community, who are all as passionate (and just as mad) as myself. The Dreamcast has literally shaped my life, and continues to do so, with Shenmue my biggest inspiration. The Junkyard has stood by our side through thick and thin and ‘I await whilst praying’ for many more moons to come!"

Patrick Traynor (Sega Saturn, SHIRO!): "I first encountered the Junkyard back in the Spring of 2015. I just started getting back into Dreamcast collecting after a couple year break, and followed a few retro podcasts prior. Looking for Dreamcast content, I found the DreamPod and fell in love. The podcast had everything I was looking for: an early 2000s aesthetic, an amazing knowledgeable staff, great guests, and recommendations for Dreamcast titles I've missed or overlooked. 

"The podcast was so amazing, it eventually inspired me to start my own about the SEGA Saturn with a few friends, which became SEGA Saturn, SHIRO! Years later, I've gotten to collaborate with the Junkyard, and proud to call many of you involved with the Junkyard friends. Just saying thanks would not even be close to what I owe the Junkyard. Congratulations on 20 years everyone, definitely looking forward to the next 20!"

Derek Pascarella (Hacker/Fan Translator): "Wow... 20 years of The Dreamcast Junkyard! It's hard to put into words just how significant the Junkyard is, and has been, for the Dreamcast scene. For me personally, the DreamPod remains one of my biggest comfort listens. Whenever I hear that "This is a Dreamcast disc, and is for use only in a Dreamcast unit" soundbite play, a warm blanket of SEGA goodness envelopes me from head to toe. I must also say that I adore how strongly The Junkyard supports so many personas in the Dreamcast scene: indie developers, content creators, and even romhackers (like me). 

"The finger is truly on the pulse, and you can always count on The Junkyard being at the forefront of posting about new games, new devices/mods, as well as new patches and hacks. Hell, you can even find amazing retrospective posts on Dreamcast games we've all been playing for over two decades, full of details and insights that somehow manage to make those old games feel like green fields with so much to discover and enjoy. We love you, Junkyard. Thank you for two incredible decades! My life is, without a doubt, better because of Tom's little pick-ups blog that grew into the world's best one-stop-shop for Dreamcast fans.”

KC (The Sega Lounge): "It’s crazy when everyone’s celebrating these big milestone anniversaries and you’re forced to face the fact that you, yourself, are getting older. However, as much as it’s weird that The Dreamcast Junkyard is already 20, it’s also strange that it isn’t older. To me, it feels like it has always been a part of my online life, if that makes sense. The Dreamcast is still, to this day, a big part of my life, and whether I want to be informed or entertained, I know DCJY is the place to be for all my (blue) swirl needs. I can always count on the Junkyard team to stay on top of the happenings around the Dreamcast scene, share their love for a new and promising indie darling coming to SEGA’s box of dreams, or even just find a barber!

"The DreamPod is also a permanent part of my podcast listening rotation and a very enjoyable show that never fails to leave me smiling after each episode. I’ve been fortunate enough to be on the show and privileged to have some of the guys on my own podcast. A delight. 

"When the topic of relevant websites comes up in conversations with friends, DCJY is always mentioned. Frankly, it’s not just a relevant SEGA or video game resource, but also a prime example of how to keep a community alive and well. So here’s to the Junkyard’s 20th anniversary! May you keep us all dreaming for many more years."

Freakdave (Developer): "I’d come across DCJY before, but things really took off when Luke Benstead (Kazade) and I (Freakdave) released our Tunnels demo into the wild. We ended up with a mention on the DCJY site and a nod in one of their countless Dreampod episodes. Now here we are in 2025, and I’m raising a mug of coffee in my Dreamcast Junkyard cup to wish you a very Happy 20th Anniversary!"

Ross Kilgariff (Developer): "I was contacted by Tom from The Dreamcast Junkyard 8 years ago (!) for an interview on my work-in-progress game project, at the time called "Dungeon Ross". I had no previous experience promoting my games and getting a message from "the press" was a really big deal to me. I told my family members and proudly shared the link to the article and video. The interest that DCJY showed back then gave me confidence and made me want to stick around on the platform. So thanks DCJY for 20 years of service, and here's to 20 more :)"

Dreamcast Enjoyer (YouTube): "Raising a Hassy to celebrate 20 years of the Dreamcast Junkyard — a wonderful community and still my internet homepage to this day. Thanks for keeping the dream alive, lads!"

Adam Koralik (YouTube): "20 years of talking about the Dreamcast, at least you still make me look like the young one. Next year, come to the US for a bit and you'll be old enough for me to get you a beer, that I guess by my own logic I'm not old enough for. Keep dreaming!"

Video Game Esoterica (YouTube): "DCJY is turning 20? One more year and it can legally drink High Life! But seriously...how has it been 20 years? I still remember finding the site forever ago looking up some Dreamcast info and it's been a part of my "Sega Life" since then! I love that a console that had approximately a three year lifespan can make 20 years of engaging content and still not feel old! Here's to another 20 years so we can buy DCJY a '40th birthday' balloon like I got this year!"

Daniel Ibbertson aka DJ Slope (YouTube): "The Dreamcast Junkyard has not only been one of the most valuable sources for all things Dreamcast (and beyond) but the team behind it have personally helped the channel multiple times too with their invaluable knowledge. It's always a pleasure to remember to open up a browser and binge on what the site offers and as a hardcore Sega fan. I'm chuffed that the site is still going strong 20 years later."

PC Wizard (YouTube): "A 20-year accumulation of Dreamcast-related words and phrases that come together in a wonderful tapestry of articles to celebrate the world's best video game console. It brings tears to my eyes! Or maybe that's just the onion I'm cutting as I write this... Either way, happy 20th to the greatest junkyard on the web!"

Adrian O’Neil (DCJY Superfan): "Congratulations on the 20th anniversary of the Junkyard! Genuinely the Junkyard/DreamPod is my favourite Blog site and podcast. All contributors to the Junkyard are amazing. A special thanks has to be reserved for Tom.. Here’s to another 20 years!"

Uncle Clutch (also a DCJY Superfan): "I got caught in the Dreamcast spiral back in ’99, and the Junkyard has kept it spinning in my head ever since. Nostalgia pulled me in at first, but new games, projects, and the friendly community have kept me in its orbit. Congratulations on 20 years!"

What a lovely collection of messages, I'm sure you'll agree. Brings a tear to th'eye, I tell thi.

But wait, there's more!

It would be rather remiss of us to simply post a blog about reaching such a milestone. Back when we reached our 10th anniversary in 2015 we ran a competition in collaboration with SEGA Europe where they gave us a load of Dreamcast Collection limited edition vinyl records to give away. Hands up if you remember that? But I digress (again). This year we have something equally as cool, and we'll be announcing the details in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out!

Look up to see Aaron (Animated AF!)'s amazing tribute to the Junkyard's earliest header design!

For now though, I just wanted to once again thank everyone who comes here to read our articles, listens to our podcast and who just generally has a passion for keeping the Dream alive. To the people who continue to churn out the podcasts and the articles and the social media content. Without all of you out there keeping the Dreamcast relevant, there'd be no point in any of this. So thank you.

With that, I'm off to watch some AI-generated videos of Will Smith eating a Pot Noodle through a fence. Ciao for now!