Thunder Storms

One of the first games I played on the Dreamcast, and also one of the most spectacular home conversions of an arcade racer that I've ever seen. What am I on about? Hydro Thunder, of course! Amazing graphics, great music and sound effects, perfectly balanced vehicle (should that be boat?!) handling and a sense of pure fun that most modern games are sorely lacking: make no mistake, Hydro Thunder is one mind-blowing Dreamcast game. Indeed, it was the game I would put on if ever I wanted to show off what the DC was capable of whenever any of my PS1-owning (deluded fanboy) friends came round to the house. Not that it stopped them waiting for the PS2, but at least I did my bit. Sigh. The game was, however, ported to other consoles too - namely the N64 and PS1. How did those versions measure up to the mighty Dreamcast incarnation? Not too well, actually. OK, I respect that the Dreamcast is vastly superior to both of those machines in terms of technical specs so we shouldn't be too harsh, but regardless Eurocom and Blue Shift were handed the task of cramming the game onto the N64 and PS1 respectively by Midway, with varying levels of success...

The N64 port of Hydro Thunder actually looks the worst of the three - it's got muddy graphics and a lack of visual effects that made the original so attractive, such as lens flares and water reflections. It is smooth though, and with an Expansion Pak a four player mode is unlocked. That extra 4MB of RAM could probably have been better used increasing the screen resolution though, in my opinion. The PS1 version, whilst a lot sharper than the N64 game, does have a rather choppy frame rate and there are plenty of trackside details missing, as well as some amazing polygon tearing and water effects that border on the laughable in places...but on the plus side it does have a career/championship mode which is missing from the DC and N64 versions. The DC version itself isn't perfect - the sun is clearly visible through the walls of the tunnel in the first track...but I can live with that. Overall though, the Dreamcast version kicks seven bells out of the others...and the proof is here in this lovely little video I made. Enjoy:

Reicast - Dreamcast in your Pocket

Obviously, the best way to enjoy delights of the Dreamcast's exceptional catalogue of incredible games is to play on an original Dreamcast console, with an original GD-rom firmly ensconced in the disc tray. Yes, the VMU may beep and the GD drive may sound like it's grinding a sack of concrete to dust inside...but there's no better way to experience Spirit of Speed 1937 Blue Stinger Vigilante 8: 2nd Offence Soul Calibur. Got there in the end!

However, we here at the 'Yard appreciate that in 2014, not everyone owns a Dreamcast console, let alone a massive library of games be it due to financial or space-based reasons. Indeed, as is the current trend with retro games of all flavours, colours and creeds there are people out there who are intent on driving up the price of hardware and software to the point that it is no longer accessible to the average gamer. I'm not going to mince my words here - these hoarding traders are scum and I take great delight in telling them so whenever I spot a 'L@@K RARE' copy of Ready 2 Rumble on eBay with a Buy It Now price of £34.99. The Dreamcast Junkyard will not tolerate such activity.

With this in mind however, it is understandable that emulation is becoming very popular as it costs virtually nothing to get an emulator off the internet. Naturally, the whole legality of the owning of emulator software (or roms, as they're more commonly known) is a bit of a grey area but as long as you own the original software on a disk or cart, it's fine to own a back-up. Now the legal stuff's accounted for, here's the point of all that guff you just read: there's a new(ish) Dreamcast emulator available for Android devices! It's called Reicast, and you can get it from the Google Play store for your phone, tablet or even Ouya. Yep - the three people who still own an Ouya can now play some decent games, and as an added bonus you won't have to rub your fingers all over your device's touchscreen in order to earn some Kudos!

I personally don't own a single Android-powered device (unless you count my old Huawei Blaze which is rotting in a box in the attic somewhere...which I don't), so I haven't been able to try Reicast, but judging by some of the videos I've seen it does appear to be a fairly solid emulator. I would imagine that you'll need a pretty beefy device in order to run DC games at a decent speed (running Android 2.2 and above), and the software is still in the Alpha stage so there are likely bugs and issues to be ironed out. You may remember that we ran an article on NullDC for Android some time ago, but Reicast looks like it may be the better option for more casual users - there's plenty of documentation on the Reicast forum and there's an official website too. Bear in mind that you'll need to 'acquire' a Dreamcast BIOS file in order to get the emulator working, but if you've played DC games on Reicast either on your phone, tablet or Ouya, let us know about your experiences in the comments section. Cheers dears!

Setting the Pace

I'm constantly amazed by all the stuff I still come across regarding the Dreamcast. Just when you think you've seen it all, something else pops up. Now, I'm aware that there are plenty of other folks out there on the interwebs who no doubt know far more about the Dreamcast and Sega than I ever will...but quite how this passed me by, I don't know.

What am I on about? Well, it appears that in 2001 Sega entered into a partnership with set-top box manufacturer Pace with a view to create a digi-box...with a 40GB hard drive and the guts of a Dreamcast chucked in. The vision was an all-in-one digital TV receiver that could also download 'on demand' Dreamcast games that were subsequently to be stored internally. Yep...mind: blown. Obviously, this kind of thing is the norm in this age of broadband, Xbox Ones and Hi Def thingamajigs...but in 2001? It was truly groundbreaking stuff.

Sydney Hunter, I Presume...?

Another week, another new game. First Pier Solar HD gets announced (see Barry's awesome SEGAbits podcast episode below) and now it appears that after some mild success as a browser-based flash game, Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Death is being ported to several retro systems...including the everlasting, ball-busting, mother-f*cking Dreamcast! There aren't any screens from developer StudioPiña as yet, but you can play the original here for free. Yes, free. There are no paywalls here, my friends. Anyway, you play as the titular Sydney Hunter - an 8-bit Nathan Drake with some rather special boomerang-hurling skills - and must traverse various caves whilst avoiding enemies, climbing ropes and retrieving treasures. It's actually a damn good game, with easy controls and nice graphics.

Sydney Hunter is meant to look like an MSX or Colecovision game according to the author, and even though I haven't played on either of those systems, I did have an Amstrad CPC back in the day so it kind of reminds me of Amsoft's Roland on the Ropes and other similar titles. Sydney Hunter is much better than those games though, and is slightly reminiscent (to me at least) of Spelunky. Hopefully the Dreamcast version will feature better visuals and animation, but even without any upgrades, Sydney Hunter will be a welcome addition to the Dreamcast's amazing catalogue.

Interview with Pier Solar HD developer WaterMelon games discusses Dreamcast and Genesis/Mega Drive versions

Yesterday I was joined by SEGAbits owner George for a podcast interview with Pier Solar HD developer and WaterMelon Games president Tulio Gonçalves. Tulio was an excellent guest, giving us great answers to our burning SEGA questions. Pier Solar, which released in 2010, was an indie RPG game for the Genesis and Mega Drive. In 2014 WaterMelon plans to release an enhanced and expanded version of the game that is set to hit a number of platforms including our beloved SEGA Dreamcast. The game will take advantage of the Dreamcast VMU, VGA cable, and will offer up cool mini-games... all this in addition to a 50+ hour RPG adventure!

Give the episode a listen and make sure to help WaterMelon to bring the game to PC by voting “YES” on their Steam Greenlight page!

Rolling Start

Ah, Daytona USA. One of my favourite racing series...along with Sega Rally, Thunder, Rush, Colin McRae, WipEout, Outrun and WRC. And a whole gut-load of others, too. What is it about Daytona that warms my cockles? I'm not really sure, but the combination of cringeworthy music, bright visuals and fuzzy car control probably has something to do with it. Oh, and that awesome Sonic mural carved into the cliff face on the final turn of 777 Speedway. If I ever win the lottery, I'm having an artificial cliff face constructed in the grounds of my mansion just so I can have that mural carved into it. The inhabitants of the small rural hamlet that then falls under it's shadow will no doubt petition to get it torn down, but the 30 foot mech I'll also build will silence them.

Going back to Daytona, the original Saturn port was serviceable but the updated Championship Circuit Edition was better, even if the car handling was slightly weird. Oh, and it had the best menu music ever. The 2000/2001 reboot is one of my favourite games on the Dreamcast and features some brilliant tracks and amazing graphics. To illustrate the point, check out this video I knocked up comparing the visuals and audio from the three different console versions mentioned here:

Half-Life: Dreamcast Vs PS2

The story surrounding the Dreamcast port of Valve's seminal shooter Half-Life is one that is full of mystery. The game was pretty much complete and ready to go, but then it was suddenly cancelled for reasons no-one really understands. Actually, thinking about it, it was probably to do with Sega pulling support for the system but that isn't as exotic as the report I read that involved Sony paying the publisher a large sum of cash to drop the title. Before anyone jumps down my throat, that's just a rumour I read somewhere and there's (probably) no truth in it. At all. Regardless, the DC port leaked quite some time ago now - I mentioned that I'd got hold of a copy way back in 2006 - and I've played through the main game and the Blue Shift side story multiple times now. I'd never played the PS2 port though, so when I saw it for £1 in a pawn shop I snapped it up. What else could that pound coin have gotten me? Half a lottery ticket? A sloppy custard tart in a greasy bag from Greggs? Maybe even a Pot Noodle...although I haven't had one of those delicacies for a while so I'm not sure how much they cost these days.

So Half-Life on the PS2, then. How does it compare to the Dreamcast port? I was expecting it to be vastly superior if I'm honest, seeing as the PS2 is supposedly much more technically capable and the game benefitted from having a larger team and a longer development/polishing term. But upon playing it, I was surprised to see that the DC version is every bit as good. There are minor differences, such as slightly longer loading times on the DC one, but the other differences aren't detrimental to Sega's machine. For a start, in DC Half-Life, you can move around in the monorail car in the intro - you can't move in the PS2 port. There's also more music in DC Half-Life, but the PS2 game adds helpful 'hint' boxes around switches and things that you can interact with while DC gamers are left to press everything they can see in the hope it'll open a door/call a lift. Character models' faces in the PS2 game benefit from having slightly more creepy eyes, too. Anyway, I've created a short(ish) video demonstrating the intro section of the game on both systems. I may do another one showing some actual gunplay at a later date but for now, sit back and check out Half-Life: Dreamcast Vs PS2:

Redux: Dark Matters is finally out on Dreamcast!

As covered over at RetroCollect and previewed here at the 'Yard by the Gagaman a few months back, HUCAST's remix of space shooter DUX is now out and available to buy. I personally haven't played either DUX or the subsequent DUX 1.5...but helpfully I'm not blind, so I can use my eyeballs to see that these games look pretty damn good. The last side scrolling shooter I played was Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy on the Atari Jaguar (just this morning, in fact folks!), and I must say that Redux: Dark Matters looks several magnitudes better than that ever will. But then, you knew that already!

Here's a snazzy Youtube trailer:

And here's a link if you fancy buying a copy.

Triple Threat

Well, Christmas has been and gone, and we were a little quiet here at the 'Yard. Mainly because the Dreamcast has been out of production for the last decade, but we don't let that get us down! And in any case - Happy 2014 to our loyal readers and DC lovers! On a slightly different note, I made a new video recently and I thought I should post here as well as elsewhere...if that makes sense.

It's a comparison video showing the various graphical differences between the console releases of San Francisco Rush 2049 on the DC, N64 and Xbox. I think you'll agree that the DC version looks pretty much identical to (if not slightly better than) the 'arcade perfect' Xbox version (which was included as part of the Midway Arcade Treasures 3 compilation). I think the most notable differences between the N64 and other versions is the lack of a headlight effect, and the Xbox version's tire smoke looks a bit thicker than that in the DC version...but have a look and form your own opinion. Enjoy:

Dreamcast 15th Anniversary REZtron Party

When I said in the Top 200 Dreamcast games article that I was celebrating in style this is what I meant. Finally got around to editing this footage together so you could see what REZtron's Dreamcast Anniversary party at the Hoxton Pony in London was like. There were several CRT's and a projection screen for the dozen Dreamcast's to play on: there was even one hooked up to a game Gear TV Tuner! There was a whole pile of games as well as classic Sega magazines, as well as custom artwork framed on the walls and a Mega CD with Karaoke add on and Master System with 3D glasses!

Games we played there included Soul Calibur, Samba De Amigo, Bomberman Online, Chu Chu Rocket, Gigawing, Ikaruga, Ready 2 Rumble Round 2, Guilty Gear X, Capcom vs SNK 2, House of the Dead 2, Virtua Cop 2, Shenmue and more. In between playing games I left behind some doodles, all of which name drop this here Junkyard! Funnily enough someone there recognized me from the old Virtua Tennis with fishing controller video I did yonks ago!

Here are some photos I took at the event:

Sega Enthusiast Keith Apicary's New Video.

Not much I can say about this one.

The Top 200 Dreamcast Games: Voted by you!

Happy 15th anniversary of the Dreamcast! The votes have been counted so now here is the final Top 200 Dreamcast games! Thanks to everyone who joined in on the voting!

Before we get started, some random facts about the final list:

- There is a total of 235 releases within this top 200: that's because in many case and game and it's sequel is one entry, and in the cases of a few, 3 or 4 games in the same series (NFL 2K, Pop n. Music) are one entry. The bottom 18 entries would have missed the list if I had not done this.

- Of those 48 were Japan only, 10 America only, 2 PAL only and were 11 indie releases.

- Release years are based on where they debuted.

- Of these 4 were released in 1998, 49 in 1999, 107 in 2000, 39 in 2001, 9 in 2002 and 20 in any year beyond that.

- Sega Smash Pack is not included, but Sega Swirl and Virtua Cop 2 from that collection are listed.

- I own 165 of the games featured, yikes!

Just a note: the article is a bit incomplete at the moment. All the poll positions are there but a few of the games do not have descriptions yet. I'm out all of today (in fact I'm celebrating the Dreamcast anniversary in style!) so I will be coming back to finish it off tomorrow.

So without further ado, beyond the jump is the complete list from last to first. Enjoy!

Dreamcast Top 200 poll is closed!

The Dreamcast games poll has been online since the American anniversary on the 9th of September and today the poll will close up for good, so get your votes in now while you have a chance! Keep an eye out for this blog tonight as we will be launching part 2 of this poll, in which you will have to pick games over the other that have an equal amount of votes. After today the games that make the top 200 will be set in stone but the order of them will be up to you! This new poll will open tonight and will be open until the end of Tuesday the 26th! That's only three days to get your votes on the order in!

Take note that some games are going to be combined to squeeze more games in. For example Sakura Taisen 3 + 4, Power Stone 1 + 2 etc. This is because their votes are very close to each other and will make the finished list far more interesting.

Happy voting!

Toejam & Earl 3 Dreamcast beta discovered!

Second hand Dreamcast development kits have quite often led to some rather special discoveries of beta versions of both released and cancelled games, including not long ago the Alpha build of the Starfox styled Sega shooter Geist Force. Now a beta of Toejam & Earl III has been discovered!

Toejam & Earl III was announced for the Dreamcast at E3 2001, around that time when Sega was stopping Dreamcast development and moving into multi platform development. This meant a lot of Dreamcast projects got moved onto other consoles and one of those was this game, which found it's way on the Xbox a few years later. For all we knew the E3 trailer we were shown could have been running on early Xbox hardware, but now we know it was intended for Dreamcast after all.

The beta was found on a devkit purchased by ZakhooiTM who signed up to Assembler Games forums to show his discovery. It's not a complete build of the game of course, but judging from the video the ownr of the beta has uploaded (see above), it's in a perfectly playable state. The game also appears to be quite different to how it was on the Xbox: the graphics were clearly tuned up a bit on the move to more powerful hardware and they added more elements to the gameplay for the final version too. This beta is almost like a 3D remake of the original Mega Drive game, which is fine by me!

Other games that were supposedly planned for the Dreamcast first before being shifted to other consoles include Gunvalkyrie, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Super Monkey Ball and Jet Set Radio Future. Whether those were true is yet to be seen, but at this rate who knows? Maybe someone will find any of those games lurking on a devkit one day..

Redux: Dark Matters due for release December 3rd!

Redux: Dark Matters, the kickstarted sequel to DUX, finally has an official release date! The game will be released on Decmeber the 3rd, and is up for pre-order as a regular edition for 32.95 Euros or as a bundle with DUX 1.5 (released earlier this year) for 39.95 Euros. Because the kickstarter limited edition comes bundled with DUX 1.5, I have had to wait till Redux is released to also get that game, so I will be getting both games at the same time!

The Dreamcast Top 200 Poll: The Gagaman picks some you may have forgotten..

With the new re-count poll of everyone's favorite Dreamcast games on the move, it feels like a good time to list off some games I personally really love on the system that may not be considered obvious choices but in my opinion deserve a bit more recognition and may have been forgotten by Dreamcast fans voting on this massive poll. Call this a bit of a nudge-nudge-wink-wink-hint-hint sort of article. Looking back at the Top 100 results from 2009 I was surprised how many great games missed out from the list, which does say a lot about just how many great games are on the system but here are some of those games I think deserve a second chance this time around..

	Project Justice: Rival Schools 2
	Almost every Capcom fighting game got onto the old top 100, even the port of Street Fighter 2, but not this? This was such a inventive and massive 3D fighter, and is still to this day only available on the Dreamcast, unless you're one of those people that has the dosh to collect actual arcade boards. You could twat people with baseball bats and tennis rackets one moment, and dive into synchronized swimming the next! Pure genius.
	L.O.L - Lack of Love
	This one maybe understandably didn't get many votes last time simply because it is quite a rare game and not many people have even heard if it. I implore you to hunt this one down though, it's simply beautiful, and despite being a Japanese only release has zero language barrier as there is next to no text or dialog, just sounds and atmosphere. It's unique and kind of hard to explain, but well worth it's asking price so run off, buy it, play it and then vote for it, because once you've played it you will want to.
	Sega Marine Fishing
	Not a single fishing game made the top 100, not counting Big the cat in Sonic Adventure of course. The fishing controller is one of the most fun experiences on the Dreamcast for me, and this game in particular is by far and beyond the best fishing game of the bunch. It has so much to unlock and do, and the over the top colourful presentation is pure SEGA.
	Confidential Mission
	Light gun games were so shockingly few and far between on the Dreamcast it's pretty depressing. House of the Dead 2 is of course the one everyone bought a light gun for but near the end of Sega official run of the system they threw us this new James Bond themed spin on the Virtua Cop series, and it's fantastic. It's a pity modern TVs can't play light gun games, but at the very worst you can also use the mouse!
	Tokyo Bus Guide
	Oh come on, don't look at me like that! Tokyo Bus Guide is the ying to Crazy Taxi's yang: it's the complete opposite in tone, speed and rules but is still an arcade gem at heart. Much like getting the most money in Crazy Taxi, being able to clear a whole course in this game without making any mistakes is oh so satisfying. I'm not kidding! When this game clicks it clicks. It's not just me...is it?
	Mars Matrix
	Ok so this one was in the top 100 last time, but I just want to remind people for this time that a) this game exists and b) it is absolutely amazing. I really don;t know how to describe why I love Mars Matrix so much but something about it's game mechanics  it's crazy yet some how chill music, batshit sped up presentation and additive scoring and shop system mean I keep coming back to this one over and over again. I've been playing this more than any other DC games recently!
	Indie games!
	I also want to give a shout out to NG:DEV TEAM, Redspotgames, Hucast and Goat Store for the new indie games they have released since the last poll. Having new games released for a technically dead console feels rather special and these games hold up to some of the best official releases, my favorites being Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles, Rush Rush Rally Racing, Fast Striker, Gunlord and most recently Sturmwind. If you have played any of the indie releases and enjoyed them don't forget to vote for them! We at the DCJY love new games for our favorite old console and want them to know how much we appreciate them going to the effort to bring them to the Dreamcast!
	Cool Cool Toon
	This is another game that made the top 100 last time and I hope it stays that way this time around. Another one of those games that has yet to be ported anywhere else and it's that one time SNK decided to just escape their comfort zone of 2D fighters and really took on the best of the quirky Japanese rhythm genre that has since died out.
	Looney Tunes Space Race
	Infogrames followed up Wacky Races with this superb Looney Tunes racer, which really nailed the characters personalities in 3D and despite being quite short and easy was great fun.
	Maken X
	For all it's flaws Maken X deserves just as much cult status as many of the quirkier games in the old top 100. The Atlus fan base has really exploded in recent years so maybe this first person sword fighting game may catch a chance this time. I can think of much worse games that could reach the top 100. Yes I'm looking at you Blue Stinger.
	Gundam - E.E.F Vs Zeon DX
	Developed by Capcom despite their logo being no where on the box, this 3D robot brawler based on the original 1979 anime series not only looks and sounds the part but plays brilliantly too, with less of a tricky learning curve than Virtual On. Fans of the anime will adore this but even people knew to the series will get a lot of enjoyment of this.
	Alien Front Online
	One of the first console games to ever feature online voice chat, it's a shame this one cannot be played online anymore but even in the offline modes this is simple, fantastic fun to play. Blowing up everything in sight is such a joy, you can even go all 'Independence Day' and destroy the white house!
	Golem No Maigo / The Lost Golem
	You might remember me writing about how much I adore this hidden gem, if not go check out my article about it. This small time production that was mostly the work of one person while they were a student, this charming little puzzle game is like the Dreamcast equivalent of an Oilver Postgate childrens program.

I could think of plenty of other games too but I'll leave it at that for now. I tell you one thing: I personally voted for what must have been around 130 games that I think deserve to reach that top 200. Of course being a top 200 should prevent any good games from missing the list this time around...right?

UPDATE: added a few more, I couldn't resist especially considering some of these games are getting next to zero votes!

What are your favorite underrated Dreamcast games? Let us know in the comments and most importantly: make sure you vote for them! :)

Dreamcast User Top 100 Round 2: Vote for your favorite Dreamcast games!

VOTE HERE

Back in 2009, we set up a top 100 poll for everyone to vote on their favorite Dreamcast games for the 10th anniversary of the Dreamcast’s American launch of 9.9.99. It led to the most comprehensive fan chosen chart for the Dreamcast, and the longest article I have ever written.

Now here we are four years later for the 14th anniversary of 9.9.99 with ROUND 2.

This recount feels like a long time coming as I feel we could get even more people involved this time if this is spread all over Twitter, Facebook and the like. Quite a few indie games were released in that time since the last poll and quite a few Dreamcast classics have found a new generation of fans thanks to HD re-releases.

This new poll, just like the previous one, features every single retail and indie Dreamcast game released up to this date (the most recent being Sturmwind), with well over 500 in total! You can vote for as many games as you want so take your time to go through the list and make sure you have found all the games you enjoyed on the system

Games are listed with their regional names beside them (for example: Virtua Tennis 2/ Power Smash 2 / Tennis 2K2) and in a few cases games from the same series where the installments are quite similar are merged (such as the NBA 2K games) to save room. If you can't find a game, use Ctrl+F to search for it.

The poll will close on November 22nd. The results will be counted and if any games have the same amount of votes new polls will be put up for a week to decide which should be above the other.

The final results will be released on November 27th, the 15th anniversary of the Dreamcast's Japanese launch. This time around however, because so many great games missed out on the top 100 last time…I feel it’s only fair this time…to make it a top 200.

That's right, the article for the results of this poll will be twice as long as the last. I must be mental.

The full list of every game that got votes will also be released, so this will be the biggest fan voted chart of Dreamcast games ever. Basically, anyone looking into the Dreamcast for the first time that wants to know what games are worth playing will hopefully see this as the number one source.

The poll can be found HERE at a site called misterpoll. The first time you view the site you will get a save mode on / off page, click either of the buttons and you will go through to the poll. Unfortunately we can not embed the poll here but this was the most functional poll site we could find after lots of pulling our hair out! Thanks go out to Barry the Nomad for helping get this sorted!

UPDATE: added a couple games that were missing (oops!) and moved two of the Gundam games that were under K up next to the other two Gundam games so they are easier to find.

UPDATE 2: Moved the poll closing date till the 22nd of November, so you now have a week left to vote!