for weeks at a time... What other console would furnish you with the opportunity to raise a anthropomorphic amphibian, from birth till death, and have him remember your vocation, birthday and gaming preferences???? It's a man-fish, that talks back to you... Come on!!!
1.) No surprises here for anyone that knows me. It's Shenmue I and II. Surely the greatest videogame of all time. I've spent weeks and months in Ryo's world, and hanker for it to this day.
| "Another Delay |
| 18.12.08 |
As the trailer shows DUX has almost reached its final state. So the game itself is pretty much finished but it takes more time to get the game run flawlessly on the Dreamcast - that's the main reason why this game has yet to be released. Currently it's not easy to give an exact release date so you can expect the game early next year.
We hope everyone who has a pre-order for the game is not discouraged by the many delays and understands that we want to make and release an flawless product."
Well I'm afraid I am very "discouraged" by the latest delay. Developers Hucast were quick to take my pre-order money when I was expecting a new Dreamcast game back in July. I don't understand the complication. Of course I wouldn't want a flawed game, but contrast the development process with that of the very slick Redspot Games who delivered us 'Last Hope' and 'Wind And Water Puzzles'.
This is my Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) Dreamcast system. Sakura Wars is one of the largest RPG and anime franchises in Japan. In 2006 I went to the Sakura Taisen café in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Inside, the waitresses were dressed as the very characters printed on this limited edition Dreamcast. For those of you interested in Sakura Wars, I plan on doing a special feature at some point. There have been many limited edition games, including goodies ranging from calendars to music boxes, included with the games. Anyway, this one is pink (yes, girls either love it or worry about your sexuality), there's a matching controller and VMU too. All boxed. Lovely.
Hello world. We've got a new team member here at the 'Yard - a gentleman whose collection of DC stuff is nearly (but not quite) as impressive as my own collection of twigs and tin openers. Ladies and Gents - please welcome マーティン - and for those who don't speak all 572,785,398,003 of the known galactic languages, that's Japanese for Martin. A long time Dreamcast nut, マーティン spent this summer in Osaka and has actually been to Akihabara (rather than just reading about it in dog-eared copies of CVG, like, erm, me) so that more than qualifies the guy to write about his vast DC horde here at the nerve centre of trans-dimensional Dreamcast activity. 
¡ Hola mi amigos! I realise this post is about a week too late - but it just dawned on me that The Dreamcast Junkyard is now officially entering it's third year of existence! Wow! Who'd have guessed that three years after it's conception, the humble 'Yard would be the most powerful Dreamcast-related interweb thingy/Empire in this arm of the galaxy?! 
Oh. My. God. I'm by no means a beat 'em up fan - especially when it comes to the 2D variety; indeed the last one I actually bought at full price was X-Men: Children of the Atom on the fucking Saturn, and that must be about 15 years ago now...but this is simply awesome. I hate to say it, but I am what would probably be considered a 'newbie' when it comes to 2D beat 'em ups like this. Never held a Neo Geo pad and never played an SNK game before either, but after sampling the delights on offer here I can truly appreciate the appeal. For a start, the presentation is possibly the best on the DC - I'm talking DVD interactive menu style here, and the gameplay is unbelievable. The roster of playable characters is fucking ma-husive and features all the old favorites from the Street Fighter canon, as well as a shit-load of ones you might have read about in Sega Saturn Magazine but never had the cash to be able to sample (King of Fighters, I'm talking to you). And don't get me started on the fantastically camp announcer, who is possibly the gayest in-game voice over dude since Guy Smilie agreed to commentate for Ridge Racer. Oh, and the post fight faux news reports are quality too...I could go on forever. Quite simply, this is possibly the best 2D fighter I've ever played. But there's more...
Everyone's favourite early DC game, Power Stone was a 3D beat 'em up with a difference - you could run around freely within the stage, pick up weapons and the titular 'power stones' and dish out some serious cans of whup ass in full-blown polygonal glory. Power Stone 2 ups the ante by several folds, adding such delights as a four player mode (an aspect missing from the original that SERIOUSLY damaged my Dreamcast's appeal recently), bizarre side-scrolling single player stages and a horse-box full of new characters and weapons. In layman's term, Power Stone 2 is basically more of the same, but with 4 characters battling to the death rather than just two. This may sound like a bonus on paper (screen), but in reality it's about as confusing as that sudoku puzzle in the Metro (erm...I'm thick). You can barely see where your character is at times and you're constantly being attacked and then told (courtesy of big flashing arrows) to run or jump to a new area of the level. What was wrong with smashing someone's face through a wall ala DOA2, to reveal a new arena? Here, you have to outrun Indiana Jones style boulders, mid-bout, just to carry on your scrap! Don't get get me wrong - Powerstone 2 is a wicked fighter, and the absolute pinnacle of pissed-up four player gaming 'mayhem'...but it just gets too complicated for it's own good at times. The twat.
Yep, it's Woolie & Worth. Who's thinking of them during this festive financial crisis?
Sometimes I think I spend too much money on collecting Dreamcast stuff, but then I think of that guy you owned every single Japanese game sealed up and how much he must of spent to get that lot only to not even play any of them. Last week I splashed out quite a lot of cash on a Dreamcast bundle of stuff: £120 (+£10 postage) to be exact. It all arrived yesterday and i must say though, I think it was a great deal.
This orange logo on start up is going to take getting used to, I've had a blue one all these years up until now..
One of those broken Japanese systems I had also had a modification: someone had replaced the Japanese power board in it with a British one, which simply means it now took British plugs with no need for a stepdown converter. So not long after this new one arrived yesterday I popped the two open and swapped the power boards around and wala! My new system now had two mods to it. Now all it needs is a direct VGA socket hack and it'd be perfection. I'll use the stepdown for whatever other Japanese electronics I get (like a Japanese Saturn one day) and sell off the broken systems.
Another reason this bundle was a great deal was the games. A mixed bunch from every region, the games that convinced me to make offers on the set were Gigawing 2, Radilgy and Trizeal. All three of these games would cost me quite a bit separately, possibly around £40-50 each. The guy who owned it clearly had good taste: just have a ganders above at the 12 games that came with it. There was also two light guns in the box, a controller and a black VMU. Not all the games were in great condition (Power Stone in particular was pretty wreaked), but it's still a fantastic lot.
The last couple months have been quite busy with spending: I've been buying Dreamcast stuff a plenty. The lot above came from a ebay shop that has tons of sealed stuff selling cheap. I got a total of six VMUs (two of each colour) as well as Heavy Metal Geomatrix, Kao the Kangeroo and Charge N' Blast.
Here's another load of Japanese games I got cheap. I'm going to be digging out some translation guides to play Rent-a-hero and Sakura wars 3 (always wanted to see what the fuss was about with that series) and both Cool Cool Toon and Tokyo Bus Guide are quite addictive. I also have a japanese copy of Shenmue with the Jukebox CD, which means I know own Shenmue on every region. Oops! Probably best if I got rid of the PAL one then, to save shelf space.
Finally there's these two little oddities. These demo discs called "Dreamcast Express" were apperently only availble if you joined a Sega club of some sort, and come with two discs each. One of the discs has a full on interactive video tour of Tokyo Game Show '99, which is rather neat.
Look at that picture. Now look closer. Can you see a little white box of awesomeness? Okay, I'll help, it's right next to the old doctor's finger. The screen is from the new Sonic Unleashed and was spotted by the good folks over at Sega Nerds.
I'm sure you saw that Japanese project where someone had crammed a PC into a Sega Saturn, and if you browse about other blogs you have probably seen this already too but whatever...here is the same crazy bloke with a PC crammed into a Dreamcast. It even has a Blu-Ray drive!
It's quite amazing how this guy has managed to squeeze so such into the Dreamcast's shell. It must of been tricky enough with the Saturn, but the Dreamcast is mighty compact! The innards are insane!
Look at all those connections up it's backside! I sure would love to get a PC this compact and good looking, rather than a giant bulky block, mine of which is currently getting repaired as the darn thing decided to stop turning on.
And just to make sure it doesn't set on fire after five minutes it has a huge-arse fan in the bottom. I take it this means the system has to be layed on it's side when in use.
The controller ports are now USB ports. How cute. Yep, you could put me down for one of these! I'd get it emulating the previous Dreamcast, and scribble a "2" onto the logo.
..and yes, this is the official birthday of he Dreamcast, not 9/9/99, which is the anniversary of the American launch. Today (or was it tomorrow? Whatever.) ten years ago the system was launched in Japan, almost a whole year before the west got it.
Just a quick post to let all of you lovely people know that the latest edition of the very marvellous GamesTM magazine has twenty plus pages devoted to our favourite console this month.