A Space Channel Remake? Probably not...Or Maybe yes!!! *Edit*

From Wired BLog Network: Game Life.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/01/interview-mizug.html

Tetsuya Mizuguchi was talking about Rez HD and he was asked about Space Channel 5.

"(Laughter.) If I had a reason to remake Space Channel 5 on the new platforms, I will do that."

hmm...

Ok. It would be interesting to see a space reporter dance in HD.

There you have a reason. Get to the remaking...

But really. I dunno. I haven't finished the ORIGINAL Space Channel 5 yet. AND I got the PS2 remake.

A remake would be cool though...


UPDATE:

Sega Nerds just reported there IS going to be a remake on the Wii.

Gagaman is batting about 100 right now for his Wii-remake predictions. Give him a hand everyone!

http://www.seganerds.com/2008/01/24/space-channel-50-coming-to-wii/

They got this info from the Magic Box

Well, hopefully Tetsuya Mizuguchi will be involved somehow. From what I have read he did an awesome job of remaking Rez.

And hopefully we will see more girls cosplay as Ulala...

What The F**k???

In the second of a series of videos requested by DCJY correspondents, it is with a massive degree of trepidation that I post the above video... I'll do it, because long term commentor and Planet Dreamcast forum chum, Nick944 has requested it. And I'll take whatever (inevitable) flack comes my way for doing so.

What relevence does this have to the DCJY then? Well apparently this is the video journal of two guys who are producing a Dreamcast Homebrew title called (possibly) Chaos Rift... (Well that's what the developers website is called...) From what I can gather it's an RPG featuring... erm a crudely drawn massive knob, and an even cruder representation, of a ladies... erm... "Lady Garden"...

Apart from being a rather poorly made video, with bad sound, it is also, dare I say it rather tedious... And this is just one snippet of a vast catalogue of diary-type videos on Youtube, based on enlightening us all on what it takes to develop a homebrew title. Now I know some of you tech-types might marvel at the ins and outs of 'coding' and 'sprites' and the like, but I would rather pour red hot salt in my eyes, and wash it out with rancid horse piss, than watch any more of these two chickless dweebs, showing off their homebrew adventures.

So there you have it! my genuine apologies to my friend Nick for not sharing his enthusiasm about this project, for I will NEVER, EVER play this game even if Sega announce they are launching The Dreamcast 2 bundled with the title!

Dreamcast Attention Hotting Up...

For those of us who love the Dreamcast Junkyard, Sega's final console never died. But for those gamers in the mainstream, the Dreamcast was written off as a failure, when Sony's PS2 outstripped it in sales and became the dominant console of it's generation.


However, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in our beloved console of late, largely due to it's most comparable current gen system, the Wii. Why comparable? Well, a quick scroll down these very pages will reveal the Gagaman(n)'s most recent post about how the Wii's motion sensor controls were actually pioneered on the Dreamcast, even though Nintendo are loathe to admit it. This post simply serves to show some video of, and links to, the topics Gagaman(n) has already so eloquently flagged up...





Sega are currently referencing some of it's finest Dreamcast games in new releases or actual straight ports of it's back catalogue. Take Sega Superstar Tennis, running on the Virtua Tennis engine, Dreamcast favourites Ulala (from Space Channel 5) Beat (from Jet Set Radio) and Amigo (from Samba De Amigo) will all be playable characters within the game. Lovely! Look at the intro scene for the game in the video above and weep tears of joy.



But Amigo's star continues to rise with the inevitable re-release of Samba De Amigo for the Wii... As suggested some time ago by DCJY's G-Man, this was a no brainer for the Wii, with the Nunchuck and the Wiimote replacing the maracas. Official Nintendo Magazine had the bloody cheek to gush recently (and I quote...) "It's as if this game was made for the Wii!" Deluded fools! Nintendo have no plans to release maraca peripherals either! BAH!

Oh and by the way, did you receive any royalties for this Gagaman(n)? You bloody should have!


Then there's the Wii release of Sega Bass Fishing. According to the most excellent Sega Nerds blog:



"The game will feature four modes - arcade, tournament practice and nature trip; 15 stages, seven of which are brand new with four from the arcade and Dreamcast versions; and finally, you’ll be hunting down four different types of bass - Florida Large Mouth, Red Eye, Small Mouth and Northern Spike Large Mouth." Fishtastic!



Then for all those Wii Zapper fanatics we see the release of House Of The Dead 2 for the Wii with the imaginatively titled "House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return" (finally I mention something Gagaman(n) hasn't already!) I've got a couple of copies of the original which I still play regularly... I've never completed the game, maybe I'll have more luck with the Wii version!


Apart from recycling my good friend's posts and (hopefully providing you all with some nice video and links) my point is this... The Dreamcast lives on... And who knows? Maybe some of the Wii generation will be inspired to grab themselves a Dreamcast themselves, to see where all these classics came from and experience some of the 200+ other games that graced the little white box... Any publicity for Sega's finest creation must be good!


Now! What if I were to tell you that Sega were (finally) showing some love for the Dreamcast, after cruelly stopping GD-Rom production, closing down the PSO servers and withdrawing technical support... Well according to Sega Nerds, Sega want to make Border Down an official 2008 Dreamcast release! Read on...




"Earlier today we reported that the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis isn’t quite dead yet all these years later a new game will release on our beloved old friend console. Well I’m happy to report that Sega doesn’t think the Dreamcast is dead yet either!
That’s right, Sega have decided that they want to rerelease Border Down on the Dreamcast, The game which is a Shmup (shoot em up) developed by G-rev was originally released on the Sega NAOMI Arcade board and later ported to the Dreamcast.
It appears the game will be available on the Dreamcasts GD-Rom disks and I assume will come in a DVD style case. It will probably be available from Sega Direct and other Japanese Import websites.
The game will be available from January 17th, 2008. At the price of 7,140 yen."


Big thanks to Sega Nerds and The Gagaman(n) for all the information that I so shamelessly plagiarised in this post!

Counterstrike on Dreamcast??? WHAT!?!?!!?!??!

I am hesitant to post this since I can't tell if it's finished development or not. It's very interesting though.



http://www.dcfan.net.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=689

So it's single player with Counterstrike weapons and bots. I assume that multiplayer would be almost impossible. Still pretty cool. I have played single player Half Life mods with Counterstrike weapons before and they were fun.

This is actually more of a technological step for the Dreamcast than anything else.

If any Dreamcast or Half Life coders are out there listening please considering making this playable on the Dreamcast:

http://manke.planethalflife.gamespy.com/theyhunger.htm

They Hunger. The sweetest single player mod for Half Life EVER. It would be AWESOME to play this on the Dreamcast!

Or as a close second:

http://hosted.planethalflife.gamespy.com/heartofevil/default.asp

If either of these mods was playable on the Dreamcast I would be able to die a happy death.

They both feature zombies.

The future of the Dreamcast looks pretty good if people can get more Half Life mods to work on it.

Furthermore...

Carrying on from yesterday’s meandering insight into my recent purchase activity, I thought today would be as good a time as any to pour scorn onto the other glittering jewels/polished turds that I have inducted into the Junkyard.

Dragon Riders: Chronicles Of Pern

Anyone seen Eragon? You know, that shit Lord of the Rings wannabe? I have – and it’s poo. Malkovich – you know where the door is. Anyway, Eragon and Dragon Riders could quite easily been separated at birth. I realize that they’re both based on books by totally different authors before some green-toothed librarian comes on here to engage in some pathetic argument, but the fact remains. But back to Dragon Riders. You play a titular Dragon Rider who lives in a magical noddy-land type place called – you guessed it! – Pern. The world is under threat from some enigmatic evil thing called Thread and it’s down to you, with the help of your dragon, t’ save t’ world, laddy. Quite how you will achieve this by wondering around sparsely populated Kokiri Village knock-offs is unclear, but that’s the aim anyhow. Dragon Riders is essentially your bog standard westernized RPG. You build up stats for your character; you get different outfits; you engage in very poorly done hand to hand combat; you go on sub-quests that involve finding things for lazy NPCs. For me though, the biggest disappointment in Dragon Riders is that YOU DON’T GET TO RIDE ON A DRAGON! 

There I was expecting some Panzer Dragoon style action – you know, blasting shit with snazzy lasers and opening up family sized cans of WHUP-ASS on terrified villagers – when all the Dragons act as are portals for getting around the map! You walk up to your Dragon, tell it where you want to go…and Whoosh! One black screen later and you’re at your destination. Pah! RUBBISH. Graphically it’s pretty good – the outside environments are quite impressive and the animation is decent although the Dragons look like they’re made out of balls of playdough. The voice acting is really rather good too – much better than in, say, Shenmue. Loading times are horrific however, so be warned. Best bit though? Have a look in the booklet. It’s got PC installation instructions in it! The lazy cunts couldn’t even be arsed to make a proper Dreamcast manual. Tsk. 6/10

Note: It would’ve been 9/10 if I could fly the Dragon and shoot flames and all kinds of crazy shit out of its mouth.

Iron Aces

Another plane based shoot ‘em up for the Dreamcast, Iron Aces differs from the rest of the pack (Aerowings 2, Deadly Skies, Incoming et al) in that it’s set during WWII. Sort of. You see, even though at its heart it is for all intents and purposes a game set during the height of the Second World War, all of the theatres are totally fictitious. Therefore, instead of fighting the Hun over the English Channel or the fields of Southern England, you shoot down Messerschmitts and attack enemy naval convoys around a made-up archipelago consisting of bizarrely named islands that are meant to represent real countries. 

So England becomes ‘Trincer,’ Germany becomes ‘Blocken,’ Japan is ‘Yamato,’ and the US is renamed ‘Valiant.’ WHY? Surely just setting the game in 1940s Europe would have been sufficient – why go to all the trouble of making up some half-arsed, contrived story to go along with a WWII game? Surely the REAL War is good enough as a backdrop? The mind well and truly boggles. Anyway, you play an unnamed young pilot in – as ever – the US Airforce. And it’s up to you to save the poor old defenseless British from the ever advancing Axis of Evil. So you hop into your fighter plane, take to the skies and dish out some pain. This being WWII and all, there are no magic homing missiles – just machine guns and bombs, so shooting down enemy planes relies more on your own skill than in Deadly Skies where you have fire and forget missiles at your behest. The thing about Iron Aces is that it’s totally unremarkable. The pace is sedentary, the graphics completely average (and very bargain basement), the sound totally pathetic. And why you have to press TWO buttons at the same time to drop a bomb is a question only the developers can answer. Also – why does the camera need to switch to a 3rd person, spinning-around-your-plane view when you do manage to drop a bomb? Where you can still control the plane? So you can inadvertently smash your plane into the sea/floor because you couldn’t see where you were going? Genius that. So to sum up: Iron Aces – weird. 5/10

Wacky Races

I was never really a fan of the Wacky Races cartoons to be honest, although Dastardly and Muttley are truly legendary creations. As far as licensed games go though, Wacky Races has got to be one of the best ever. It’s about as close as you’re gonna get to something like Diddy Kong Racing on the DC, in that you start the game by driving around a small ‘hub’ level and must drive into the different areas of the map to access races on tracks in that particular theme. I suppose the most striking thing about Wacky Races though, are the superb cell-shaded graphics. Oh, and the brilliant voice samples and sound effects deserve a mention, too. When you strip all the aesthetics away, Wacky Races is a ‘kart’ game, with loose handling, loads of suitably wacky characters (all from the cartoon series) and weapons dotted about the track that you can use to hinder the progress of your enemies. Wacky Races is a marvel to look at and all of the environs are suitably garish – although the dreaded slowdown does rear its ugly head every now and then, but it’s nowhere near as bad as that seen in Exhibition of Speed. So Wacky Races then. Amazing graphics, lots of challenge, loads of longevity. A bit of a corker really. 8/10

Looney Tunes Space Race

Cell shade overload alert! Coming from the same Infogrammes/Warner Bros stable as Wacky Races, Looney Tunes Space Race is another cell shaded racer that – dare I say it – features even better graphics! Seriously, at times you could be forgiven for thinking you were playing an actual cartoon. LTSR differs from Wacky Races in that eschews the familiar hub style setup in favour of a more traditional menu-driven system. You win races, you get tokens. Tokens are then used to ‘buy’ other cool things like challenge races or view gallery items like character models etc. What sets LTSR apart though, is that it a genuinely funny game. The voice samples are superb, and the humour is very clever – even though it is at its core a kiddies game. 

All of the old Warner Bros characters are involved, so you can ‘be’ Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Yosamite Sam, Bugs Bunny and Wil E. Coyote as you speed around the futuristic tracks on your stylized ACME rocket bike. Weapons play a major part in LTSR and the same love has been lavished upon them as the rest of the game, so not only do you get the bog standard homing missiles and lasers, but you can drop elephants, pianos and anvils on foes’ heads, zap them with lightening from their own personal storm cloud, or boff them in the kisser with a comedy boxing glove on a spring. Superb stuff. Gets a bit easy once you get the hang of the boost system, but LOOK AT THE FUCKING GRAPHICS! Astounding stuff. 9/10

Bust A Move 4

Fire different coloured balls up the screen. Get 3 together and they pop. If your screen fills up, it’s “GAME OVER MAN!” Cough. It’s a very simple game, with very simple graphics, but it still kicks 28 tonnes of ASS in multiplayer. Not the game to rival Chu Chu Rocket (what can?), but top fun nonetheless. The single player ‘story’ is unnecessary, as are the vomit-inducingly twee characters (please God, no more vomit), but Bust A Move 4 is a pleasant little puzzle game. And I don’t think there’s much point putting anything else. So I won’t. 6/10

Silent Scope

Oh to be a police sniper. The fame, the money, the women. Well now you can have it all! That’s right – just whack a copy of Silent Scope into your Dreamcast, and your life will be transformed! No longer will you have ‘kick me’ sellotaped to your back; or have to give the school bully your dinner money! No – you can pop a cap in his fat face from seven miles away! Well, that’s what it says in the manual anyway. Silent Scope, then. Have you seen that cool-as-fuck looking arcade machine with the big rifle and scope on it? That’s Silent Scope, that is! And here’s the Dreamcast conversion – in all it’s arcade perfect glory. It would’ve been better if they’d packaged a sniper rifle peripheral with it, but I’m pretty certain – no I AM certain – it’d never work. Basically, it’s an on-rails shoot ‘em up, but instead of using a lightgun (which could’ve worked, maybe), you have a little curser that you move around. Press the button and it zooms in, sniper style. Leaving you free to fill any passing terrorist or ne’er do well with hot lead. It’s quite good fun in small blasts, but the longevity is tainted by the fact that it’s just an arcade game. That you’re only meant to play for about 5 minutes in a bowling alley whilst you wait for your lane to free up. And at that it excels, but Silent Scope is about as deep as a supermodel’s belly button, so you’ll get bored very quickly. Like I did. And go and make a cup of tea, or a Cuppa Soup depending on your preference. 5/10

Note 2: neither of these screenshots is from the DC version. But fuck it.

On a different note, I saw a film called Kung Fu Hustle yesterday. If you haven’t seen it, go now and get it. They’ve got it in Tesco for 3 quid. It’s a ridiculous martial arts ‘comedy’ (that isn’t remotely funny), but the fight scenes are amazing. Nothing to do with the Dreamcast, I know – but just thought I’d mention it.

Also, who can beat this: whilst trying to post this update, I was confronted with the message "Safari can't connect to the server..." about 500 times. This resulted in me nearly putting my fist through a router and my laptop's moniter. Can you beat that? Entries on a postcard!

Vomitus!

Hello all! Happy 2008! I know what you’re thinking: Who the fuck is this asshole wishing me and my emo/goth/virgin suicide imaginary friend a ‘happy’ new year? It’s me! Uncle Tomleecee! There I am! Christ almighty, been a while ain’t it? Well, you’ll be glad to hear that I’m alive and well, and aside from fighting the ‘war on terror,’ I’m also fighting the war on mainstream gamers forgetting the legacy of the greatest console the world has ever known. That’s right: The Dreamcast. So what’s been going on eh? Well, the Gagaman, the Father and new(ish) recruit Caleb have been holding the fort quite respectably in my absence, and my heart goes out to ‘em. A tear is quite literally forming on my cold metallic cheek and forging a path downward toward my granite like pectoral as I write this. Sniff. Lads: Respec’. However, let’s get down to business. I’m here to happily report that my DC game purchasing activity has not been dormant, which is more that can be said about my postage here at the ‘Yard.

The internet, they say, is a wonderful thing. When you can get it, of course. That said, I have been scrounging other, more God-fearing people’s unsecured wireless connections for some time now and as such, thought it only decent to put said free bandwidth to good use and come on here to inform you, the great washed, of my recent (and not so recent) addi
tions to my bulging – nay burgeoning - Dreamcast catalogue of games…

But before I continue my diatribe - a gripe. Gamestation. What the fuck has happened there then? Once the last bastion of Dreamcasters everywhere, the Helms Deep of retro gamers, Gamestation has ceased to stock Dreamcast games!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK?! I went into one branch – that shall remain anonymous for it’s own sake, but lets just say it’s in the south of England. Well, Somerset – where the spotty, Dickies-wearing fuck up behind the counter didn’t even know what a Dreamcast was!!! HOW DARE THEY EMPLOY SUCH A CUNT. So there it is. Gamestation is now an enemy of our state. Final Solution? Ebay.

And that’s where this story starts. Ebay. I remember a time when I simply refused to buy anything off ebay because of the postage costs sellers forced upon me. £3.50 to send a game in the post is not unreasonable. IT’S FUCKING SCANDALOUS. Ahem. However, desperate times call for desperate measures. So I’ve swallowed my ‘pride,’ bitten the proverbial bullet, and coughed up a lung to pay these ‘postage costs.’ And what has this behavior merited? Games galore, my friends, GAMES FUCKING GALORE!

So let’s review the situation, Fagin stylee: But before we do, go and make a brew and grab a packet of hobnobs. This may take a while…

Evil Twin: Cyprien’s Chronicles

Has anyone ever even heard of this? I hadn’t until I bought it. For twenty quid. Most I’ve ever paid for a DC game I think. I’m pretty sure that this was one of the Dreamcast’s final releases, and you can tell. Graphically, it’s quite superb – think Rayman 2 but with a more mature feel. But I’m jumping the gun. You play as a young orphan dude called Cyprien who must venture into a strange world called Undabed and kill stuff. Not original, no – but quite unique on the DC. Think Mario 64 with nicer, darker visuals and swearing – yes, swearing!, and that’s Evil Twin. Quality. 8/10

Le Mans 24 Hours

A bit legendary this. A racing sim that allows you to race for 24 hours. Yep, 24 HOURS. Who the fuck is sad enough to sit there for 24 hours, you might be thinking. No one. So you can go into the pits and save your progress. Genius! Le Mans 24 Hrs is basically a tarted up port of the PSX game of the same name, and by tarted up I mean overhauled. The graphics are simply astounding, the handling of the cars sublime and the loading times ridiculous. Verdict: One of the best looking and best playing games on the DC. There are loads of real life cars and plenty of tracks to race on, but let’s get to the point: The visuals are far and away the best thing about Le Mans. Put this next to any PS2 or Xbox game and ask a passing cretin to tell the difference. They can’t. 9/10

Buggy Heat

Launch game alert! Dodgy lifespan alert! Buggy Heat. The world and his (fat, ugly) wife have played this. 4X4 sand buggies racing around boring, grainy tracks. Yawn. Limited play modes, basic graphics, crap music. Now rewind to 1998: WOW! This game looks IN-KER-EDIBLE!! Look at the in-game gear shift view! Look at the pseudo real time headlight effects! Look at the AI! Quite. Cost me all of 1p. No, Really. And I got what I paid for. Not that it’s not fun to have a blast on – it’s just not MSR. 5/10

Snow Surfers

Launch game alert! Dodgy lifespan alert! Snow Surfers. The world and his (bespectacled, obese) wife have played this. It’s a snowboarding game. It’s slow. It’s impossible to pull off tricks without landing on your face. It’s not a patch on 1080 Snowboarding, and even that is gash – so what hope for Snow Surfers? None. It’s endorsed by some nondescript ‘boarding company though, so it’s got that going for it. Next! 4/10

Q. Can I be bothered looking for decent pics of Snow Surfers?

A. No.

Tomb Raider: Chronicles

Lara, Lara – where for art thou Lara? She may have disappeared in recent times thanks to a series of shit films with Rimmer in them; and a load of wank PSP/PS2 ‘games,’ but back in the day, Tomb Raider was the business. Chronicles is the second, and best, TR game on the DC and pretty much goes back to the roots of the first couple of games: You play as Croft and run, leap and roll around various maze like levels. Granted, only a few of them are actually tombs (mainly cities, sunken ships, (badly guarded) military bases etc), but it’s still good fun nonetheless. Furthermore, Chronicles actually looks as if it was programmed for the DC rather than just ported from the PSX – the visuals are quite good and Lara’s animation is spot on. Not as good as Flashback, mind - but good all round effort from Eidos. Which makes a change. 7/10

Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear

Fuck me. I’ve personally never experienced an epileptic fit, but after playing Rogue Spear I can pretty much guess what it must feel like. Put simply, no matter how good the PC version may be, the DC version is unplayable because of the screen update issues. Imagine playing ANY other game and getting your mate to shake the telly up and down. That’s what Rogue Spear is like. Actually no – imagine taking 3 ecstasy pills (not that I’d condone such activity). You know when your eyes suddenly start flickering? Rogue Spear. Avoid. 2/10

Exhibition Of Speed

Titus’s spiritual sequel to Roadsters, Exhibition Of Speed, or E.O.S as it likes to call itself, is an abysmal game. From reading these mini reviews anyone would think this was an anti-Dreamcast site, but being the impartial resource that we are, it is our prerogative to give you the truth. And here it is: E.O.S stinks. Even more that the kebab I threw up last night – and that stank to high heaven. To be fair, E.O.S has some good ideas thrown in – you can choose a driver and a car to make different combinations of handling; there are loads of customization options and loads of gameplay options…it just looks and plays like a spectrum game. The slowdown whilst playing in the 3^rd person view is horrendous – even worse than the Saturn version of Doom. It’s a real shame because E.O.S has all the ingredients of a fun, San Francisco Rush-esque racer. It’s just the graphics engine that lets it down. And the graphics engine is an essential part any game…so it’s goodnight, Vienna. 3/10

Ducati World

You guessed it. ANOTHER stinker! Ducati World. One of only 3 motorbike games on the Dreamcast, and possibly the worst. I’m actually getting a bit bored of slagging DC games off. Short and sweet: PSX quality graphics, laughable menus, hideous hideous hideous HIDEOUS. 128 bit? AAAAAAAAAARGGH. It’s shit like this that killed the DC. Lets move on quickly. 1/10

Fighting Vipers 2

Ah! This is more like it! The sequel to the Saturn’s 5^th best fighting game (after Fighter’s Megagmix, Virtua Fighter 2, Last Bronx and X Men: Children of the Atom), ighting Vipers 2 is your bog standard 3D scrap ‘em up. There are very few bells and whistles here, people. It’s nowhere near as good as Soul Calibur, but as a fighter it’s hard to fault. Gameplay is solid, visuals are crisp, options are plentiful. Downsides? The voice over that announces “Fighting Vipers…TWO” is a bit cringeworthy, and it’s a bit limited when it comes to characters…but overall a decent fighter. Can’t really think of owt more to say about it. 7/10

Cleaning Up Vomit (AM R&D #2)

Top game this. Basically, you play a mid twenties binge drinker who goes pissing it up at the weekend. Using the well implemented VM facility, you can mix large quantities of Bulmers, Magners, Carling and Blue WKD with a large donner kebab and then throw it all up at 4am. All over your bed or carpet – it’s totally up to you! The graphics are a bit blurry and the sound it a bit muffled, but the gameplay is brilliant. I played it –not for the first time – last night, and it’s still awesome. Xbox 360 update please. 9.7/10

In the next exciting episode, when I can be arsed:

Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern! Bust A Move 4! Iron Aces! Conflict Zone! Silent Scope! Looney Tunes Space Race! And more!!!!! Exclamation!

Bet you can’t wait.

An N64 emulator for the Dreamcast? Surely not!

We've all seen that the Dreamcast can be quite the clever piece of kit when it comes to emulation. The fact that it can run Playstation 1 games at more or less full speed via Bleem is impressive enough, but now it looks as if someone has found a way to run Nintendo 64 games on it! Even more surprisingly, it has apparently been done by simply porting a PSP version of the emulator over with almost zero extra work, and at least for Super Mario 64, it runs with almost all the graphics intact! There is no sound and it runs at 10fps at the fastest, but this is still an incredible feat! Here's a video that the programmer named Simpson474 put together:



It really does seem too good to be true, doesn't it? Dcemu.co.uk has all the technical details:

Daedalus for Dreamcast
I have ported two versions of Daedalus to the Dreamcast, mainly to see how the performance would be. Both versions only use the interpreter core of emulator and neither version has support for sound or saving. Both speed and graphics are far from being playable, and I can’t imagine that a N64 emulator can ever run at 25+ FPS on the Dreamcast. This emulator is not completely without optimization, the graphics plug-in for example uses the TA directly to get the maximum speed. However, the CPU core is completely free of optimizations and there is no DynaRec available. It would be a lot of work to implement a working DynaRec core for the Dreamcast and there would be only little RAM left to be used for the DynaRec.

Compiling the emulator
I used gcc 3.4.6 and KOS 1.3.0 for compiling the emulator. The Non-PSP-Version has a makefile made by me (which is not very good) and for the PSP-Version a modified version of the original makefile is used. There are no project files for an IDE included.

Using the emulator
Both emulators are available as scrambled 1st_read.bin and DaedalusDC.elf file. The scrambled file is intended to be burned to a disc (not tested) and the DaedalusDC.elf file can be used with dc-tool and a serial programmer cable. There is no real user interface; the emulator only scans the root directory of the inserted disc. The ROM filenames should have no spaces in them and I recommend using short filenames for the ROMs.

Non-PSP-Version
This is the faster of both versions, but has more limitations. This version only supports ROMs that match into the RAM of the Dreamcast. There are 16 MB RAM available on the Dreamcast. 4 MB are used for storing the N64 RAM. Up to 8 MB are used to store the N64 ROM and the remaining RAM is used for the emulator. The only game that goes ingame with this version seems to be Super Mario 64.

PSP-Version R8
This version gets rid of the 8 MB ROM limitation, but therefore it is even slower than the older version. There are some games that go ingame (Mariokart, Zelda – Ocarina of Time, Rugrats in Paris – The Movie), but there are a lot of graphic glitches. In Zelda – Ocarina of Time for example you only see parts of the GUI ingame after ages of loading.

Further Development
Because I’m sure that this emulator will never run playable, I won’t continue the development. This was just a test for me to see, how the SH4 would perform emulating the N64. I ported the emulator nearly one year ago (as you can see from the PSP-Version R8, currently there is PSP-Version R13 out) and since then I have not worked on this port. Some days ago I found my video that I have captured after the development and thought I could upload it on Youtube. I did not think that someone would be interested in perhaps the slowest emulator on earth.

Did you catch any of that? Nope, me neither! It's still pretty darn impressive, and who knows, maybe someone out there with the knowhow could get this running even better! Very exciting times, indeed, my friends.

Dark Falz's last stand online. Dreamcast PSO

A group of Dreamcast PSO enthusiasts takes on Dark Falz one last time in 2007...

This is during the last days of the official Sega European Servers.

While you can not longer play the game online "officially" anymore, there are other methods that can be used. I am still playing the game offline myself. It's too bad that they never setup a multiplayer offline option. (One of the gamecube releases did have some kind of split screen option)

It's a bit of a spoiler because it shows the end boss. Still pretty cool. You can tell that some people still enjoyed playing the game in 2007 and it's a shame that the plug had to be pulled.

Powerstone: A Video Review!

The only reason I'm posting this is 'cos the God-like entity that is NebachadnezzaR told me to do so! 'Nuff said!

Top Dreamcast Moments of 2007

Well it's 2008 and I still don't own a current-gen console. Go figure.

But that's all right because 2007 was a year stuffed with awesome Dreamcast occurrences!

Join me, will you, as I blog about some of my personal favorites...

New Dreamcast games!

Karous, Trigger Heart Exelica and Last Hope. Remember these? What a great year for classic shumps!

Proving once again that the Dreamcast IS the undead console, new games were announced for 2008 as well. This was AFTER the GD-Rom was discontinued!

Redspotgames doesn't want to leave the Dreamcast.

Interview.

Website.

They are coming out with Dalforce and Wind And Water Puzzle Battle this year!

And lets not forget about Dynamite Dreams!


4 players with VMU mode!

http://alicedreams.com/NewsANG.htm

And of course we cannot forget the many homebrew releases and ports from the Dreamcast Evolution site!

http://www.dcevolution.net/

My Favorite?

http://www.dcevolution.net/game_bass.php

Beneath a Steel Sky! If you have a Dreamcast mouse and keyboard you will be all set!

Nick Perry gets a new copy of Resident Evil 2 for the Dreamcast



Just a random youtube video. But I liked it and the Resident Evil 2 Dreamcast version is the best one out there!

The Dreamcast 2 rumour.

Is it possible to crush the Dreams of Sega fans anymore? Yes, yes it is.

Totally official Sega Dreamcast 2 plans. PROOF AT LAST!

http://www.trademork.com/dreamcast/

This trademark renewal led to speculation and many many tears...

Getting a copy of Powerstone 2!

Ok, this was just a personal thing. I have wanted a copy of this game for a long time. I was so lucky to get this game and many other Dreamcast gems in 2007. I made the effort to rearrange my collection this year as well so I got to get some new pics up.

And my personal favorite for 2007?

The Dreamcast guitar.



I don't know why this masterpiece (originally blogged here by Gagaman(n)) caught my attention but it did. Perhaps it's just a nice symbol of how cool the Dreamcast and the Dreamcast community is.

Thank you Flooky from Destructoid.

Here is hoping for an awesome 2008.

May I take this opportunity, on behalf of all of the Dreamcast Junkyard team, Tomleecee, Gagaman(n), Caleb and myself, Father Krishna to wish all our readers and commentors a very Merry Christmas! Let us know what the old guy stuffs down yer chimney...

3D Dreamcast controller video.

Now that is a controller!

Back and forth! The New Dreamcast trademark! What does it all mean? Nothing?!!?!?!

From: GameDaily

"SEGA has no plans to get back into the hardware business, but we also want to protect our past and current brands. The trademark application was filed to protect our current and potential future use of the word DREAMCAST and to prevent other parties from using it in a way that could be confused or linked with SEGA," Sega of America PR Director Charlie Scibetta.

Hmm. Well I have personally seen a bunch variations of "Dream Gear" plug and play games on the market in the past and recently that look a hell of a lot like Dreamcast controllers. So I guess protecting the good Sega Hardware name makes sense.

And I suppose if Sega is going to release more Dreamcast titles on the current gen consoles via digital distribution it might spark another round of CYA (cover your assets). It might be cool to have "Dreamcast Brand" digital downloadable games.

...if I had a newer console anyways.

I feel bad that I will not be able to own a Dreamcast 2. Ah well, my North America Dreamcast game collection is not complete yet. And maybe one day I will be able to download some games on another console.

The Magic of Seaman, captured on film.

One of the true gems in the Dreamcast's library and possibly the oddest virtual pet sim you'll ever play, Seaman is not so much a game you play as it is an experience you er...experience. Because the game involves talking through a little green microphone to your mutated fish, ripping footage of the game simply isn't enough to capture what makes this game so special, and it's also difficult to predict just when the game will surprise you with something new.

While I would just recommended buying the game and playing it for yourself, if you're not afraid of being spoiled on some of the events along the way, or have already played the game, there is a great series of videos on Youtube by New Gen Gamers, where you will see the game from when the babies have hatched, up until the point that the fish start to talk well and ask you questions. Have a lookie below for the dull tank dull of miserable crabby fish that will make your life complete.

Elend's Most Fabulous Creations!

If you scroll down a little bit, you'll see a wonderful post by Caleb , about the Dreamcast's 9th anniversary competition, hosted by our most wonderful brothers over in Germany, Dreamcast Scene, in conjunction with Redspot Games (creators of the most excellent Dreamcast 'shmup' Last Hope) and also, quite surprisingly Sega Europe!

In Germany, they do a much better job of keeping our beloved consoles alive, than we do in the UK or USA! Wanna know why? Check out this and this!

I checked into the first competition, couldn't answer the question, then forgot to check out the rest! Oh how I wished I had! For I might have been the luckiest man in the world and won this!!!! elend's most amazing custom Redspot Dreamcast!!! How fucking cool is that???

Gaze on it's awesomeness! Bask in it's beauty! Revel in it's glory! God bless Dreamcast Scene! God love Redspot Games! And God bestow all His ultimate gifts on the genius that is... elend!

Oh! And the most exciting part of the post!? The mighty elend is now a contributor on the Dreamcast Junkyard's little brother, the Saturn Junkyard!

You see? I get all the best people! I got the mighty (if short) Greek wonder of the world, Gnome, I got America's finest, the American Dreamcaster, Caleb, I got Germany's finest graphic artist, elend, and I got "the special one" the awesome NebachadnezzaR!!! Pride of Portugal!!!

...and it's our birthday party on the 13th! And I want to see all of our readers and contributors there!!!! (Yes especially you Gagaman(n)...)

Happy days!!!

Don't get you hopes up, but... (UPDATED)

From Videogamer.com:

SEGA Corporation has filed a new application to protect the trademark Dreamcast - sparking rumours that the Japanese publisher is planning on making a shock return to the console manufacturing market with the Dreamcast 2.

The application, sent to the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) dated August 13 2007, relates to:

Home video game machines; player-operated electronic controllers for electronic video game machines; video game interactive controller, namely, hand held pads, and floor pads or mats; joysticks for video games; computer cursor control devices, namely, computer mouse; flash memory cards; video game software, computer game programs".

Web chatter suggests the proof is in the detail of the application - the original Dreamcast didn't have a floor mat accessory and the Dreamcast's Visual Memory Unit (VMU) is far from the flash memory cards we know and use today - although we'd say that the VMU is pretty similar to the modern day memory cards.

The filing could, of course, simply be a further effort from SEGA to protect the Dreamcast name. According to the USPTO the original Dreamcast trademark is still active. However, the two descriptions are very different. You can see the original trademark description here.

We've contacted SEGA UK for comment. We'll update you on this potentially megaton story as we get it.

By the sounds of it, Sega is simply updating their trademark of the name Dreamcast so that no one else can use it for something, but when you compare the new trademark to the old one, you'll notice the description is rather different.

What could this be hinting at? It's probably nothing, but Sega could have something up their sleeves involving our favorite little system, or at least it's brand name. There's a possibility that Sega plan to port Dreamcast games to a download service such as the Virtual Console, X-Box Live Arcade (which is already getting REZ, Trigger Heart and Ikaruga) or Playstation Network. Of course this is only the most rationale reason I could think of other than protecting the name, but if we really wanna let our minds wander...

DREAMCAST 2?
(A dreadful mock up I drew in about 2 minutes)

EDIT: According to Gamedaily, It's been confirmed by Sega that they are defiantly not considering going back into the hardware business, saying they are sticking to their guns of being a third party developer, that has so far been better for them then people realize. HOWEVER, it is still unknown, even to the Sega representative who responded, exactly why Sega of Japan has updated their trademark. While a new console is obviously out of the question, there's a small chance they have something up their sleeve. Remember back when they announced they were moving into the multi platform side of things that they had plans to develop the Dreamcast hardware into a single chip which could be used in other devices, such as set top boxes etc? Just a thought.