Some Cool Dreamcast Pin Badges From Dreamcast Collectiv

I recently received a package in the mail. Not an uncommon experience for most of you reading this - getting mail (or 'post' as we call it here in the UK) is an everyday phenomenon. Sometimes our mail is a demand for an unpaid bill, the thinly-veiled threat of bailiffs being sent round to our humble abode to confiscate our collection of 1920s beer bottle caps contained therein. Said hypothetical bottle caps will be sold at an equally hypothetical auction, and the funds 'acquired' subsequently forwarded on the creditor. This scenario is purely hypothetical. It was actually my collection of Ford Mondeo sump plugs that they took...but I digress.

A recent mail drop into my heavily guarded compound contained some rather lovely items: a trio of Dreamcast-related pin badges created by Dreamcast Collectiv to mark the 20th anniversary of our beloved console. Point your eyes at them:
One is a rather lovely smiling VMU, one is an Arcade Stick, and the other a lozenge emblazoned with '20th Anniversary,' which of course, is 2019 if you live anywhere that isn't Japan. Or any country that doesn't follow the Gregorian calendar. They are really rather nice, and are so well produced you'd be forgiven for thinking they were actually made by Sega.

I must thank the gentleman who sent them to me, at no cost and completely out of the blue. A man named Rene whom I salute and thank. Rene, if you're reading this, check your letterbox (erm...mail thing on a stick?) for a reciprocating gesture of goodwill and love of the Dreamcast in due course.
You can check out the Dreamcast Collectiv (and find out when their next awesome live event will be) by following them on Twitter here, or by looking at all their other social links here. Cheers Rene :)

The Dreamcast Cocktail


For a limited time (Oct 15 to Nov 14, 2018), there was a Dreamcast inspired cocktail available from Japanese Karaoke Bar chain JOYSOUND.
Classy
It was only available on the secret "back menu" - items that were unlisted and not advertised in store. You could only order one if you were "in the know" and hence forth impress all your Japanese salarymen and careerwomen buddies. It would set you back a princely 680 Yen.

And just what goes into a Dreamcast cocktail, you might ask? Let me impress you with my elite on screen character recognition software and google translate skills:

(....drum roll....)


Dreamcast: Year One Smashes Kickstarter Target

Hello. It's me, Tom. Been a while hasn't it? Enough about me though (sort of) - there's a new book all about the Dreamcast coming very soon! Full disclosure: I was actually interviewed for this book, so I do have a special interest; however it's still nice to see yet another physical tome dedicated to Sega's final console assume a physical - albeit not yet final - form. Yes, Andrew Dickinson's Dreamcast: Year One recently hit its Kickstarter goal of £6,000 and will now join the recent, similarly Kickstarted PS Vita: Year One as part of 2 Old 4 Gaming's stable of niche publications.

As stated, I was interviewed for Dreamcast: Year One and Andrew sent me a list of probing questions about my affinity with the console, my favourite games, and where I think the future of the system and its faithful community lie. To be honest, most of the stuff I wax lyrical about can probably be found in the archives of this very blog, such has my life been completely ingrained and documented here over the past decade and a half. That said, it was an honour to take part, and due to the success of the Kickstarter, the book looks set to be sent out to backers in October 2019.

Naturally, it's not all about me (weak McFly reference - check), as several other much more important people are also interviewed, with editor of DC-UK magazine Caspar Field,  editor of Official UK Dreamcast Magazine Ed Lomas, and former SEGA America chief Bernie Stolar amongst that number. There are also a bunch of mini reviews and deep dives on certain Dreamcast games. As the name suggests, it will primarily focus on the first year of the Dreamcast's meagre lifespan, and have a very distinct UK flavour which will make this book pretty unique in comparison to the mainly Japan and US focused stuff we're used to. There's a glut of original artwork by artist Erik Pavik that accompanies the words too. Overall it looks to be a very nice addition to the 2 Old 4 Gaming library.

The previous release from 2 Old 4 Gaming was the aforementioned PS Vita: Year One, and again - full disclosure - I was a backer and recipient of that book. As something of a PS Vita fanboy, I was very impressed with the accuracy and quality of the information contained between the covers of that particular text, so I have high hopes for Dreamcast: Year One.
You can find out more about Andrew Dickinson's Dreamcast: Year One by visiting the Kickstarter page here, and the upcoming PS Vita: Year One and PS Vita: Year Two books from 2 Old 4 Gaming here.

It's worth noting that there is also the other Dreamcast Kickstarter book coming in 2019 from Darren Wall (you can read about that one here), but we think there's enough of a difference in approach to both of these projects that they can easily live side by side on anyone's bookshelf, coffee table or stall at an overpriced games convention.
Finally, some more full disclosure. You may have noted a recent drop off in terms of articles from myself here at The Dreamcast Junkyard. That's because I was totally fed up with the internet, gaming, the way everyone screams at each other on social media these days and, well, life in general. So I checked out of the internet and took a well-deserved hiatus.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and continue to do so. To this end, I doubt very much that I'll be back to updating this place as regularly as I used to, but I'll be checking in with the odd update every now and then to help the other writers keep it all ticking over. I won't be going back on social media though. Oh no. That dumpster fire can burn itself to the ground, and through to the very core of the planet.

The uncertain future of Space Channel 5

In the aftermath of the recent Leaving Neverland documentary, every man and his dog has been quick to distance themselves from any association with Michael Jackson. His songs have been removed from radio playlists around the world and even the first episode of season 3 of The Simpsons, which features the pop star, has been stricken from video streaming services. In light of all this however, there is perhaps one casualty that has yet to be covered (or uncovered) by the mainstream media.

BREAKING NEWS: Five new Dreamcast games incoming!

In addition to the announcement that the Kickstarter-funded FX Unit Yuki would be finally making its way to Dreamcast next month, JoshProd and RushOnGame.com have revealed their next batch of Dreamcast indie titles heading our way:
What a lovely mix of titles. Pre-orders opened today and the games are expected to ship between March 15 and April 30. All of the previous JoshProd titles are also up for grabs, so if you missed any, now is your chance. The promotion will be available on RushOnGame.com until midnight, May 15 2019 and the games are also available from the PixelHeart.eu store.

Retro Fighters Kickerstarter controller


Everyone and their dog has an opinion on if the Dreamcast pad is any good or not, however today saw a potential actual contender arrive for the much aged original Sega Dreamcast design. So if you do happen to either not be a fan, or just fancy a change after all these years, then more options are emerging in this field.

Retro Fighters, the LA team that has previously successfully Kickstarted and delivered pad designs for the NES and the N64, today launched and then achieved the £10,000 goal they had set for delivery of the project for a new DC pad, that will fully support VMU and rumble too.

NEWS FLASH! FX Unit Yuki set for March 2019 release

The first new game for Dreamcast in 2019 has been announced. FX Unit Yuki: The Henshin Engine, a love letter to the PC Engine, has been ported to Dreamcast and is set for a March 15th release date. Check out the announcement video below.

The Dreamcast Games of 2018

Welp! It’s February already and we haven’t even done a year in review for 2018 yet. Shame on us.

If you recall, 2017 was an unprecedented bumper year for Dreamcast games. There was a total of 27 physical releases last -  er.. the year before - including nine brand new titles, various re-releases and packaging variations. Along with the physical releases, we also got out hands on the previously unpublished game Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters during 2017 as well. It was going to be hard for 2018 to top this lot.

Just what did the year that heralds the 20th anniversary of our little white box have in store for us? Let's take a stroll back down memory lane through the Dreamcast releases of 2018.

Every Dreamcast release of 2018

How To : Get online with DreamKey 3.0

The Dreamcast Junkyard's very own, James Jarvis has put together this rather handy video guide, showing step by step how to connect to the Internet using the Dreamkey 3.0 disk. Check it out below!

Dreamcast pad working on Nintendo Switch


We here at the Dreamcast Junkyard love our sometimes unfairly maligned controller, however have you ever wished you could use your beloved VMU housing beaut on your Nintendo Switch? Well, no me neither, but now you can anyway.

Forced to use a screen shot of a YT video? You betcha!

Sonic Adventure's Christmas DLC and How It Broke the Game

Christmas is coming. The goose is getting fat. Sonic has landed a movie role in which he plays an eldritch abomination.
Anyway. Let's ignore Sonic's mistreatment in the present and look back to Christmases of old, specifically the Christmas of 1999, when the millennium bug was striking fear into the hearts of common man and the Dreamcast was the coolest console money could buy (don't get it twisted: it still is). 
During the dates of the 17th of December and the 28th of December, Dreamcast gamers had the ability to install one of the first instances of downloadable content (DLC) ever (at least the kind we've all grown accustomed to in the last two generations) to their trusty VMU.
The "Christmas Party" download brings festivity to your game of Sonic by placing Christmas trees outside the station and in the town center. When players make Sonic jump at them, festive messages will come up on screen, wishing them a Merry Christmas. The music will also change to the Acapella version of "Dreams, Dreams" from Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams. Hopefully no one back in '99 thought this was a sign that a NiGHTS sequel might be coming to the Dreamcast.



Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei remakes


The internet was recently awash with Sega fans falling over themselves discussing the recent announcement about the return of Panzer Dragoon. Now there are two things you won't find within this article;

A) Any news strictly relevant to the Dreamcast (you can also spare the 'slow news day?' comments. It's a Dreamcast blog in 2018, we have no concept of any other type of news day) 
B) Any sort of explanation about the newly announced game at all. As none really exist. Other than the same statement reported everywhere.


Insert Coin launches new Shenmue range

It may be the 20th year since the Dreamcast launch. However 2018 is proving to be one of the most bountiful years for merchandise and Dreamcast related gear. The launch of the official Sega shop in Europe bought with it a host of DC related goodies, and this has now been complimented with an additional collection from UK designers Insert Coin.

No strangers to either Sega or Shenmue wear itself, having previously released Shenmue branded t-shirts and coats in the past. The new range comprises a Ryo inspired Leather coat, as well as a themed hooded zip up coat, before finally being rounded out by a classic looking white Tee emblazoned with the Shenmue tiger on the back. The coats both look perfect for avenging your fathers murder in, keeping warm in the British drizzle or for just generally showing your nerdy Sega fanboyism as you strut about your retro gaming life, no doubt filming yourself reacting to all and sundry.

Check out the images below and let us know what you think in the comments. And check out the range on Insert Coin here, as well as their other Dreamcast range that Tom previously spotlighted here.











20 Years Of Dreamcast: The Past, Present & Future

It's hard to believe that the Dreamcast has been with us now for two whole decades. Twenty years since that November day back in 1998 when Sega finally unleashed its successor to the Saturn on the world. I can't recall a console launch prior to the Dreamcast launch where fever pitch was at such a level, and the initial reports - at least the ones I read in magazines, being a young oik at the time - all pointed to a system that heralded the dawn of a new age in gaming.
The Dreamcast reveal at The Sega New Challenge Conference 1998
An age of arcade perfection in home ports, and one which ushered in the widespread adoption of online console functionality. As the Dreamcast reaches this milestone, we thought it would be appropriate to celebrate the coming of age of the system with the a brief look at the past, the present and the future of the Dreamcast scene. Happily, this will not include the coming of three ghosts, and will not include one of those ghosts having two small children under his coat. Also, you're well within your rights to feel like a bonafide old git when it sinks in: yes, the Dreamcast really is twenty.

The Past
I think at this point most people are pretty well versed in the history of the Dreamcast. As alluded to earlier, it was launched on 27th November 1998 in Japan, and the following year in the rest of the world. Initial sales were strong, and the system had an air of technological prowess about it. Graphics were far ahead of the console competition at the time, and in some cases superior to what PC gamers were enjoying too. But it wasn't just about the graphical capabilities; as the hardware too was new, fresh and exciting. The VMU in particular turned the humble memory card into a standalone console in its own right, and the controller, while it still to this day splits opinion was interesting, with its analogue triggers and aperture for a second screen of sorts. And of course, the modem that came packaged with the console as standard (apart from some very early editions) opened the door to a whole new way of playing on consoles - against people over the internet.
Eager gamers spy a delivery of Dreamcasts on the morning of the launch
The modem also offered access to the Dreamcast's Dricas service, which was an online portal designed to allow Dreamcast owners to communicate, earn loyalty points and even see on a primitive map where other gamers were located. All of these services are pretty much the norm in today's climate, but back in 1998 these online options were a huge deal. Of course, we now know how the whole party turned into a bit of a shit show after the initial wave of euphoria, and the Dreamcast wasn't long for this world as a fully-supported hardware platform.

The utterly boring debates still rage to this day about why the console failed, and why Sega decided to ditch the console after a relatively short period in the west at least (the last official game was released for the Dreamcast in 2007 in Japan); but the main reason is that many people were more interested in the PlayStation 2 and waited for Sony's new machine rather than buy a Dreamcast. Yes, there are boring debates about software support from certain publishers, and there are boring debates about the ease with which games could be pirated and the lack of a DVD player...but the main reason is that the PlayStation 2 came along and stole the Dreamcast's thunder. It happened, let's all move on.

A Brief History Of ChuChu Rocket! In Your Pocket

ChuChu Rocket! is a puzzle game that is undoubtedly a product of a struggling Sega. Imaginative, innovative, insane - one of the many one-of-a-kind experiments that was thrown at a wall in the Sega headquarters in the hopes that something would eventually stick and save the Dreamcast once and for all. Maybe this attempt to stand out was what led Sonic Team to create not just one of the most memorable puzzle games on the Sega Dreamcast, but one of the best and most memorable puzzle games ever made.
For the uninitiated, the premise of ChuChu Rocket! is simple. You place directional arrows on a checker board to guide mice (the titular ChuChus) to rocket ships, all whilst making sure they don't get eaten by giant orange cats that look like they are perpetually tripping on acid.
The guiding brainless animals to safety thing had been done eight years prior by DMA Design's Lemmings, but Sonic Team managed to take the concept and push it to the brink of madness whilst also throwing in a bonkers multiplayer mode and online play (that's still available today thanks to DreamPi). It serves as a high quality break for any Dreamcast fan who has sunk hours into deeper experiences like Shenmue or Phantasy Star Online who just wants to play something simple whilst also having an absolutely cracking time.

These days, with smart phones being in everyone's pockets, puzzle games that are easy to pick up and play function as perfect time wasters on a morning commute or even when we just can't be bothered to do anything else. Sadly, as I'm sure many of us can all agree, the vast majority of smartphone puzzlers are trite, micro-transaction ridden nonsense. But what if we could take a stellar puzzler like ChuChu Rocket! and play that in the palm of our hand instead? That would make perfect sense, right? Well it turns out that Sega did see ChuChu's portable potential...



DCHDMI Versus 480p 'HD' Dreamcast Cables

As I'm sure you're aware by now, there are a range of 'HD' options now available for the Dreamcast. What it's important to note though, is that all of these so-called HD cables are not actually delivering a true high definition image. Yes, they use a HDMI connector that plugs into your display, but this image is 480p and is being drawn directly from the analogue VGA output of the Dreamcast. Regardless of what you've probably seen or read on some other websites, the various HD cables from Pound, Hyperkin, Beharbros etc., are not magically transforming Dreamcast games into high definition experiences. That's impossible.
Now, that's not to say that any of the devices from the aforementioned brands aren't worth your time. They totally are, with both the Pound and Beharbros options being perfectly acceptable ways of connecting a Dreamcast to a HD flat panel display with the minimum of fuss. The thing is, while the games still look fine using these cables and boxes, there is an alternative device that really does improve image quality immeasurably without the need for an external upscaler. That device is the internal DCHDMI mod from citrus3000psi and chriz2600; and we reviewed it recently here at The Dreamcast Junkyard.

One of the most important benefits over the 480p cables though, is that the DCHDMI is putting out the correct screen aspect ratio. See, the VGA signal the cables use only uses the inner 640x480 of the 720x480 frame. So the TV displays the the whole 720x480 in a 4:3 format. This basically squashes the entire image. All of the VGA to HDMI cables have this porblem, but the DCHDMI doesn't do this. There are both VGA and 480p options built in to the DCHDMI menu, and the 720p option because some homebrew titles use the extra 80 pixels.
What I've seen from some commenters though, is a desire to actually see some kind of comparison between what the 480p 'HD' cables offer, and what the DCHDMI in 1080p mode (960p windowed) is kicking out. The DCHDMI, it's worth noting again, is an internal board that also packs an FPGA and which is wired directly into the GPU of the Dreamcast. It's taking the digital image directly, and there is no analogue conversion, so naturally it will be doing things the HD Link and Gekko or Akura are not built to do. That's not the point of this article and video though. This is simply a comparison...and seeing is believing. Here you go:


It's probably worth viewing the video in the highest quality available to get the full effect, but the superiority of the internal mod is pretty clear. Naturally, the DCHDMI will be more of a faff (and markedly more expensive) than just plugging a cable in to your console, but it's good to know that the options are available.

You can pre-order the DCHDMI here, should you so desire. The Beharbros Gekko is available here, and the Pound HD Link is available here.

Related articles:

A Beginner's Guide to Visual Novels on the Dreamcast

Avid fans of the Dreamcast are most likely already aware that the console enjoyed a much longer life in its home country of Japan (the last officially licensed Dreamcast game, Karous, was released in 2007). For this reason, as well as the fact 90s console developers had a track record of thinking Western gamers were frightened of anything even slightly unconventional, there is an extensive list of Japan-only Dreamcast games just waiting for fans to import. The best part is that so many are playable without knowledge of the Japanese language. All you need is a boot disc or a modded Dreamcast and voilà! you've unlocked another section of the Dreamcast library. Check out our A to Z of Dreamcast Games if you want to know the best Japan-exclusives to get your mitts on.

However, for every playable game, there are just as many that are unplayable for anyone who isn't fluent in Japanese. Anyone who is insane enough to try and collect a full Japanese set will soon realise that there is plenty of "filler" - the kind of stuff you only buy for the sake of checking another game off the list and not because you are actually going to be able to play it. You know, those games with the anime girls on the front. Games like this:
 
Some might mistakenly call these things "dating simulators", but that's a different kettle of fish entirely. No, these are "visual novels", and they do exactly what they say on the tin, they are novels with visual elements. The term was coined by developer Leaf, with their "Visual Novel Series" of text-based adventure games (source). Boot up any game like this and you'll be greeted with nothing more than walls of Japanese text and images of anime characters making various expressions. They are a very niché style of game that have never had a big following outside of Japan, especially back in the early 2000s (hence their Japanese exclusivity). Some may debate whether or not they are actually games at all, but they're still something I'd recommend to keen readers and anime fans alike. 

Their "gameplay" more or less consists of reading text and (in the case of the most common type of visual novel) occasionally answering a multiple choice question on how the main character should react or respond in a certain situation. That might not sound all that interesting to some, but I like to look at visual novels as a more visual version of a choose your own adventure book, and being a fan of anime, the artwork contained within is something I'm familiar with. A lot of the stories are enjoyable, and believe it or not, the plots aren't always romantic; there are visual novels that focus on genres like sci-fi and mystery, for example.