Let’s take a look at Fusion DC Magazine

All of the old school Dreamcast fans, those who have been appreciating Sega's last great punt at home gaming hardware since the late 90s, are starting to get old. It's true. Long gone are the days where we all hung round the streets in our baggy jeans, listening to crap nu metal through our minidisc players and still hung on to some level of optimism about what the new century would bring us - as long as we survived the millennium bug that is. A lot has happened since then.. so, so much. We probably should have realised that it was going to go downhill when Sega pulled out of the hardware business. The blue sky glory of Sega would soon be replaced with the greys and browns of a new century of gaming dreariness. That sense of optimism we felt? Yeah, that didn't go well either. The world has slowly turned into an unknowing parody of itself; a slow march towards a Romero-esque zombie world full of hopelessness, greed and hypocrisy. 

Thing is - it's probably not that way at all. But when you're in your late teens, everything seems optimistic, and when you reach the age we're all at now - many of us facing the prospect of no birthday badge ever having a number lower than '4' starting it off - all the teenagers are scary, and loud, and stupid, and the world is just one long reminder that 'it's not like the old days'. We still play games, sure, but we're not quite as sharp as we used to be, the reflexes aren't quite where they were anymore, and inevitably, someone a quarter of your age will beat you at a game, shout in your face that you're a loser, and 'Mad World' by Gary Jules will play slowly in your mind as you realise you're now past it. We can reminisce about games, sure; fill our twitter feeds with pictures of games from a quarter of a century ago, but playing them? If we get ten minutes to ourselves, and if we haven't got to battle with some ridiculous technological issue which stops us from just playing the damn things, then sure, yeah, maybe. But it's doubtful, isn't it? We'd much rather just grab a cup of tea, put on some slippers and read a good book before drifting off for a nice nap. Don't scream at your monitor (or phone, or VR device or, I don't know, some other new fangled nonsense) at me in apoplectic rage; not only would that not do your blood pressure any good, but you know it's true. We're old now. 

"Back in my day, the creators of Sonic made game consoles too..."

It's quite lucky then, that in the last few years we've seen a steady influx of Dreamcast literary content be released. Was the first the Dreamcast Junkyard's own Ultimate Collectors Guide? (Jesus, you really had to get that plug in didn't you? - Lewis) Probably. I'd look it up, but to be honest, it's getting dark and I'm getting a little sleepy. Regardless, we've since had a whole flurry of cool new books, magazines and guides, with many more on the way. The superb Dreamcast Years book from DCJY's own Andrew Dickinson, the Collected Works book released a few years ago; Chris Scullion's upcoming Dreamcast encyclopaedia; not to mention various pieces of Dreamcast nostalgia written in magazines and books. We're really at that time where Dreamcast fans are now well adjusted adults (some of us), and serious things, written on paper and meant to be read like serious adults, are now produced to cater for us. 

The latest of these, at least the latest to arrive at the 'yard, is a little magazine called Fusion DC, a special edition issue from the long running Fusion Retro Books (who have produced a lot of really good retro gaming-based books and magazines), and guest edited by a well known member of the Dreamcast community, Retro Faith. This slim 50 page mini-magazine may be small enough to fit in a pocket (on a pair of cargo trousers, at least), but is a professionally put together and full colour publication that is a welcome addition to any Dreamcast fans collection. It was put up for sale on Fusion's web store at a very reasonable £3.99, although I managed to pick a copy up for just £2.50 (at time of writing, there's less than single figures of these remaining, so grab one while you still can).

Sporting a cover on which the Dreamcast has been reimagined as the Millennium Falcon, with VMUs serving as X-wing support through the Death Star trench run (admittedly, a slightly odd design choice, but it does look cool as heck), the magazine packs a lot of content into its pages. Retro Faith has been producing some top quality content for some years now, and her passion and love for the console are evident throughout. In fact, it's fair to say that the majority of the content within the magazine comes from Retro Faith alone. There's her pick of top 5 DC fighting games; an in-depth look at Phantasy Star Online (with some contributions from DCJY's own James Jarvis), a short guide to Dreamcast peripherals, and an interview with friends of the Yard, Retro Sumus, developers of the excellent indie release Xenocider. As is always the case with Faith's writing, it is professionally written but still exudes an obvious passion for the subject matter. The magazine also looks great, with plenty of screenshots, full page visuals and clean layout.

It's not just Retro Faith who has a hand in the mag though, and there are other contributors that will be familiar to retro gaming fans in the UK. Andrew Fisher is well known for writing for numerous retro publications and websites, including Retro Gamer magazine, and his contribution here is a fascinating look at the Naomi arcade board. Nicholas McDonald takes a loving look at the Sakura Wars series, whilst Sega Powered and (upcoming indie mag) Debug writer Marc Jowett takes a look at Shenmue and its influence on then open world genre of games that came after it.

There's a couple of other bits here, including a look at a couple of Dreamcast gaming failures (MoHo!), but there isn't a massive amount of content to speak about - this is after all a magazine of only 50-odd pages! What is here, however, is enjoyable and of a professional quality.

It appears that this magazine may have been produced in limited quantities in 2022, as part of their 'Backerkit' page for the launch of their Christmas annuals, which may explain why this one passed us by at the time. It's a shame this went under the radar, as there are many DC fans out there who would no doubt have happily added this to their collection - here's hoping that this may, however, be only the first Dreamcast related endeavour from Retro Fusion Books.

Did you manage to get a copy of Fusion DC? Have you enjoyed Fusion’s magazines in the past? Let us know in the comments below or via our social media channels…

Daytona USA is Playable Online on the Dreamcast for the First Time in 21 Years

To say that online multiplayer was a central pillar of the Dreamcast brand would be an understatement. From day one it was touted as a standout feature, placed front and centre of most of the big marketing campaigns, and generally bigged-up by Sega executives at any opportunity that arose, from press interviews to industry events.

After a bit of a delay and some teething issues following the console's launch, an impressive online architecture was erected and over 80 games were released with an online multiplayer mode between 1999 and 2002. While hundreds of thousands had the fortune to experience the joys of playing their little white box online during this period, online multiplayer facilities did not send the Dreamcast into the stratospheric heights hoped for by Sega, and the official online lifespan of some games was as gut-wrenchingly brief as that of the commercial days of the console itself.

No doubt Sega had to spend a pretty penny to gain celebrity endorsements like this one...

Daytona USA 2001, the go-to title for unabashed all-out arcade-racing on the Dreamcast, is a prime example. Released to largely positive reviews (90% in Paragon's Dreamcast Magazine) between December 2000 and May 2001 across different regions, the official server reportedly ceased to function before the end of 2002. I haven't been able to source a firm verification of precisely when the server closed, but by most accounts it was only operational for 18 months at most. Mercifully though, for those of us who are hooked on the delights that online multiplayer on the Dreamcast can bring, I am delighted to report that we are now achingly close to being able to play this particular title online once more.

That's right readers. Believe your eyes and ears. In the near future, Daytona USA 2001 is due to be playable online on the Dreamcast for the first time in 21 years, thanks to the bright mind and unswerving commitment of ioncannon, who has been working on the revival of its online mode for the last six months.

The game is set to join the ranks of 25 other Dreamcast games which have had their online modes already revived and are playable online via unofficial servers. The key details regarding Daytona and some insights from ioncannon, who kindly took the time to answer our questions, can be found below.

Update (14/07/2023): Daytona USA is back online! Check out PC Wizard's post on the Dreamcast Live blog to find out more.

DAY-TON-AHHHHHHH! What you need to know about playing it online

The PAL version shown here won't be of much use to those eager to play online...

• There is no precise date set for the completion of this online multiplayer revival project (it is a voluntary initiative after all), but progress has been good and appears to be reaching the final stages. Successful games have been played between emulators and tinkerings are currently under way to get it fully working on real hardware.
• We'll be sure to post an update as soon as the new server is publicly available and ready to play on. For now, those interested can follow ioncannon's thread on Dreamcast-Talk.
  
• Daytona's online mode was axed from the PAL release at the last minute (in similarly enraging fashion to the PAL releases of Outtrigger and Unreal Tournament), therefore you will need an NTSC-U (North American) or NTSC-J (Japanese) edition of the game to play online.
• The game will not need to be patched to be played online. You will be able to play with your regular retail releases, whether those be legitimate GD-ROMs or "backups" that are played from an optical disc emulator such as the GDEMU.
• The revived online mode will feature nearly everything that the original online mode did: up to 4 players per race, with plenty of tracks and cars to choose from. The only feature that has yet to be figured out is the ranking system.
  
• The game is not compatible with the Dreamcast's Broadband Adapter, so to play online you will need to connect via your regular Dreamcast modem and a 'DreamPi' (a Raspberry Pi configured to enable your Dreamcast to play online) with an updated DreamPi image installed (something which is being worked on at present).
  
• Getting your Dreamcast online may seem daunting at first, but is actually a relatively easy task, even for those whose technical chops are lacking (like me!). Step-by-step guidance is available on the Dreamcast Live website, and the friendly folks over at the Dreamcast-Talk forums and the DCJY Discord Server are typically happy to help those who need a helping hand.
  
• Scheduling and joining online sessions of Dreamcast games is easier than ever before. The Sega Online discord group host Dreamcast games several times a week suited to different timezones, Dreamcast Live maintain a regular schedule and welcome engagement via their TeamSpeak channel, and you can also find opponents the old-school way via the Dreamcast-Talk forums.

The Revival of Daytona's Online Multiplayer Mode: Insights from ioncannon

Testing the server connection using the Dreamcast emulator Flycast. Image courtesy of ioncannon.

Here in the Dreamcast scene we are blessed to have a talented pool of people, including ioncannon, who have committed their skills and knowledge to reviving the Dreamcast's online functions. We asked ioncannon to spill the beans on the journey he has taken with Daytona thus far and he kindly obliged...

The World's SMALLEST Dreamcast Games!

The Dreamcast's GD-ROM format was a strange beast, being ever so slightly bigger than a CD-ROM but nowhere close to the capacity of the impending, mighty DVD-ROM. Packing in 1GB per disc, a majority of the Dreamcast's retail game library barely even tapped into this extra available space. As we will explore here, storage space isn't everything though: you can squeeze some pretty darn good games into not even a tenth of a GD-ROM's space!

In this day and age of being able to store Dreamcast games on many different kinds of hardware, like SD cards or hard drives, it is possible to strip these games of any blank data that is used to fill up the rest of a GD, leaving just the necessary files to save space. This can be a risky move, as doing so can break games if they're not optimized correctly, but there are "means" to find games that have already been shrunk down to be used on a optical drive emulator such as GDEMU or MODE.

My entire shelf of Dreamcast games and more fit on this! What a time we live in!

It's via this technique that I have been able to put together this list of games that are all less than 100MB! Take note, I am not including indie releases, prototypes, unreleased games, Atomiswave ports or software like web browsers and Fish Life. Also I haven't downloaded every game ever released so there are probably some visual novels out there that are tiny in size for all I know.

15. Silent Scope - 96.91MB

Konami's Dreamcast output was kind of disappointing. When they weren't busy cancelling Castlevania games for the system, they did throw out the odd bone with some arcade ports such as this here sniping-romp. It's a real shame the Dreamcast wasn't blessed with a sniper light gun like the Xbox, as the game played with a standard controller feels like it's missing something. Much like Samba De Amigo, though, it is playable enough this way but you can't help feeling like it's a lesser experience. Oh well.

14. Ooga Booga - 91.49MB

This very unique collection of mini-games, with an emphasis on online multiplayer, released exclusively in North America and was touted as one of the big hitters during the push to sell people on SegaNet. Luckily, this is one of those games where online play has been revived, though even if that wasn't the case, this would still be worth checking out as there is nothing else quite like it on the Dreamcast.

13. Evangelion Typing Project E - 71.59MB

I won't go into too much detail about this one as it has been discussed here at length in the past after Derek Pascarella treated us all to an English translation! Evangelion Typing Project E gives us another game to practice our touch-typing skills on, but instead of gunning down zombies with words you er...do Evangelion stuff! Like the anime! I dunno, I haven't really had a chance to play much of it yet, but definitely give it a shot if you're a fan of the show! There are in fact two translated Evangelion typing games, but I couldn't properly shrink the other one without it breaking, so I assume if optimized well it'd probably be a similar size to this one.

12. SEGA Tetris - 62.56MB

This was the first Japanese import Dreamcast game I ever purchased from eBay, if I recall correctly! Why this one stayed in Japan is beyond me, but the console rights for Tetris have always been a bit of a confusing ride as Sega themselves found out when their Mega Drive/Genesis release had to be recalled... But this is Sega Tetris, not to be confused with Tetris...by Sega. Got it?

I really dig the presentation in this game. It's also kind of notable for being one of the last arcade Tetris games before the new rules came into play like swapping, hard drops and now legendary T-spins. The gameplay of this one gets ridiculously fast-paced, making it one of the harder Tetris games out there, though there are plenty of modes to mess around in, including a UFO catcher claw game with cute Sonic 1 remixes!

This is another one on the "someone get it translated and back online if at all possible" wish list!

11. Plus Plumb - 62.53MB

No, I wasn't going to pop down the shops just to buy a plum to photo this with. That'd be silly.

Only 3kB less than Sega Tetris, we have another Japan-only puzzle game! Plus Plumb is a pretty obscure one as far as I know. I discovered it back in around 2000 when a car boot sale I went to every week had a store of bootleg games (oh no! ☠️). These bootlegs were incredibly low effort, literally just plain CD-Rs with the game's titles penned on them, most of which were random Japanese games I'd never heard of until I took them home and fed them to the rotating Utopia reindeer.

Plus Plumb is a pretty standard match 3 versus game with some Pokémon-looking mofos chatting in between stages (with full voice acting!). I played quite a bit of this back in the day (did eventually buy a legit copy, don't worry) so the music from this is one of those earworms that has stuck with me for 20+ years!

10. Planet Ring - 62.44MB

Also within the 63MB range is this PAL exclusive, online-only mini-game collection that was given away on the front of magazines and the like. I never got around to trying this one out when the original servers were up, but luckily it's one of those games that is back online today! It even has voice chat so you can talk to someone other than your mutant human-faced fish for a change!

Hands on with C-Smash VRS

You may recall a recent post here at the Junkyard in which I was somewhat apathetic towards Cosmic Smash, the painfully stylish retro-futuristic squash-cum-Breakout NAOMI port that graced the Dreamcast during its final days as a living, breathing platform. The point of that post wasn't to bash Cosmic Smash though; it was to point out that a reimagining of Sega Rosso's quirky, super-niche bat-and-ball 'em up was being worked on for the impending Sony PlayStation VR2. Since then I have been lucky enough to be invited to sample this title - C-Smash VRS - for myself. 

While my lukewarm opinion of the inspiration for C-Smash VRS hasn't really changed (indeed even contemporary reviews - of which there are precious few - weren't overly gushing), I would now like to explain why this pseudo sequel to Cosmic Smash is probably about as close to a next-gen Dreamcast game as we're likely to see for some time.

The fridge had backup.

In order to sample C-Smash VRS, I travelled to the fair city of London and to a rather nice venue called Icetank in the trendy Covent Garden district. In retrospect, the venue couldn't have been more appropriate, with its minimalist whitewashed rooms and open spaces plastered with the familiar lurid orange concentric 'C' motif. 

If a venue was ever going to be perfect for showing off a game like C-Smash VRS, Icetank is surely it. Well, unless there's a retro-futuristic space station available for hire somewhere. The open plan nature of the venue lent itself well the multiple PS VR2 systems set up; I can only imagine the carnage which could have ensued if there had been tables full of drinks and food dotted about the place as idiots like me jumped and waved their arms and hands around while wearing a VR headset. 

Her Converse are better than mine.

Fittingly, an original Cosmic Smash arcade cabinet was positioned out of harm's way in a corner - a cabinet I naturally had to play on and which belongs to C-Smash VRS game director Jörg Tittel. I understand this particular cabinet was originally housed at Sega World in London's long lost Trocadero entertainment centre, and the story goes that if you listen closely to the speaker grill at night you can still hear the frantic pulse rifle fire and screams of the colonial marines from Alien War, trapped forever like tormented, ethereal echos of the past. Actually, I just made that up. Hudson, run a bypass. What? Where am I?

A Cosmic Smash arcade cabinet sat quietly in the corner, minding its own business...

So I played on it. Note my inferior Converse.

Props must go the PR agency 4media group for their running of the C-Smash VRS preview event, and also to Lost in Cult for their production of the rather nice Cosmic Smash themed press kits that were handed to attendees. Full disclosure here though - I was invited to the event by my Dreamcast Junkyard colleague Andrew Dickinson, who also heads up the gaming periodical [Lock-On]...which is produced by Lost in Cult. So yeah, now that little disclaimer is out of the way, let's get down to business: C-Smash VRS is a fucking disaster of a game. What were they thinking?! Of course, I jest.

I can't believe Edge is £6.50 now. It was 75p last time I bought it. Inflation in action, folks.

No, from the small snippet I played of RapidEyeMovers and Wolf & Wood's reimagining of Toshiaki Miida et al's original vision, I can honestly say I was left thoroughly impressed by the experience. This is in no small part due to the fact that the Sony PlayStation VR2 is undoubtedly one of the most impressive pieces of consumer hardware I've ever had the pleasure of sampling; but then that's probably to be expected considering the price of the thing. I've already moaned about that though, so I'll spare you the sob story again here.

Why won't they...play with me?

As this was a preview event, only two modes (three if you count the two player versus mode) were available from the C-Smash VRS main menu - a tutorial and a practice mode. Both in theory make sense in the modern era, especially since VR controls do take a bit of getting used to if you're unfamiliar with how they generally work. After a fairly intuitive calibration (where you're invited to reach out and grasp a small cuboid doodad), you get into the game. 

Dreamcast Racing Wheels - An Overview

The Dreamcast is something of a haven for racing game fans – between Crazy Taxi, Daytona USA 2001, Ferrari F355 Challenge, Sega Rally 2 and OutRun, it’s home to many of the greatest arcade racers ever made, not to mention plenty of other brilliant racing titles, like Metropolis Street Racer, Le Mans 24 Hours, Spirit of Speed 1937 and Re-Volt. With this kind of a lineup, it seems like the perfect console to pair with a racing wheel. Unfortunately, the reality is that it’s pretty hard to get hold of a wheel that lives up to the mentioned classics…

Recently, I set out to try and get the best wheel I could for the console – one that would propel the blissful evenings I was having with Sega Rally 2 into sheer ecstasy. As I scoured the internet for morsels of information on the many wheels produced for the console, I found that four wheels were typically held in higher regard than the rest:

• Sega Race Controller/Rally Wheel – The Dreamcast’s first-party wheel was commonplace and considered reliable by some, but others regarded it as cheaply made and bare bones.
• Mad Catz MC2 – Perhaps the most popular choice for serious racing fans, this wheel was lauded for its technical features, but reports of breakages lined up with Mad Catz’ track record for cheap construction.
• Interact Concept 4 – A wheel with a low attach rate, but very highly regarded by some for having similar features to the MC2 and besting that wheel in construction quality.
• Thrustmaster Ferrari Racing Wheel – Maybe the scarcest wheel of the four, this wheel nonetheless received rave reviews from those who had paired it with Ferrari F355 Challenge.

By chance, I ended up owning three of these wheels and modding one of them over the following months. I’ve decided to review each of them to ensure that other eager fans on the net will be better informed than I was, particularly with how rare and pricey these wheels can be nowadays!

First purchase – Thrustmaster Ferrari Racing Wheel

For my first wheel, it just so happened that the rarest of the above choices was one of the most readily available when I looked, as a fairly priced specimen was available in my country when I began my search. I was excited to get hold of the Thrustmaster Ferrari owing to its reputation (among a small group of users, I might add), but some harsh realities would be exposed after unleashing it from its smart packaging.

But let’s get the good out of the way first! For starters, the wheel really looks the part – it’s probably the best looking wheel of the big four right out of the box, with a sleek design and sharp Ferrari branding that undeniably gives it an air of authenticity (not to mention making it a perfect pair for Ferrari F355 Challenge and OutRun). It has some strong features to back up the look too. Every button and control on the Dreamcast controller is present and in easy reach – A, B, X, Y, a D-pad, an analog stick, and Start are available on the face, with paddles on the rear of the wheel also corresponding to L, R, A and X and the included pedals mapping to L and R as you'd expect.

These work in conjunction with perhaps the wheel’s most useful feature, the “Mode” button, to allow full compatibility with the Dreamcast library, including games which don’t typically support racing wheel peripherals. “Mode” essentially switches the wheel into a standard Dreamcast controller, allowing you to finally play games like Hydro Thunder the way you always wanted to. The presence of both paddles and connectable pedals makes the wheel appealing for those who have either preference for acceleration and braking.

The wheel has both suction cups on its base and a clamp that can be used to attach it to a table or a desk, negating any concerns of it moving around if you wish to use it on a hard surface. Finally, the expansion slot on the side of the wheel is shaped to house either a VMU or a Vibration Pack, giving you the chance to add some feedback to the games that support it. That said, you might be underwhelmed by how light the vibration effect is, owing to how far from the steering column the slot on the base of the wheel is.

It's too bad then that the wheel’s performance doesn’t match its strong first impressions. Despite the paddles on the rear of the wheel being foolproof in theory, they’re positioned in quarter-circle segments around the steering column, with the top pair mapped to X and A (gear changing) and the bottom pair mapped to L and R (acceleration/braking). This means that you’ll be attempting to use your ring and little fingers on the bottom pair if you don’t want to use pedals, which isn’t easy! To make matters worse, the paddles don’t rotate with the wheel, leaving you to stretch your fingers as far as possible on those sharp turns.

Both the wheel and the pedals have a stiffness to them that can prove problematic – the tight bungee cord-based centring mechanism in the wheel makes turning it something of a workout, and when coupled with the wheel’s lightness, can cause some unwanted lateral movements if you’re using the wheel in your lap. The stiff pedals then have a tendency to slip around on carpeted floor, though I wasn’t able to test them on hard floor.

And lastly...there’s the sensitivity.

Cosmic Smash in VR or something

Cosmic Smash is set to 'return' to consoles in February 2023. I emphasise 'return' because Cosmic Smash is a game few people outside Japan ever really got to play; and the usual (predictable) swarm of attention is now in full swing. Sega knows what it is doing with this type of release. It can't have gone unnoticed that anything even remotely connected to the Dreamcast gets vast swathes of gushing real estate on pretty much every gaming or tech blog now; and this latest Cosmic Smash related news will no doubt have people foaming into their cornflakes. 

There is a whole new generation of gamers (spenders) out there who want to know more about these enigmatic Dreamcast games which are - in the main - really poorly documented outside of fan blogs and forums. Luckily, this fan blog is still going.

Back in 2015 we covered Cosmic Smash, and I also wrote about it in issue 179 of the physical magazine Retro Gamer. Ultimately though, what you need to know is that it is a take on Pong or Breakout, where you control a humanoid player with a racquet, smashing a ball against a wall and various blocks that form ahead of you. It also looks like Rez. A bit. Using the parameters of the court, you can fling your character into multiple impossible shapes, hitting the ball back and advancing though the stages via the Passageway as a passenger on the Cosmic Bus. I've used this piss-poor 'joke' before but I'll be damned if I'm not using it again: you wait for one Cosmic Bus, and then two turn up at once. Literally just after you've received the Call of Chuthlu and realise it's a wrong number. I refuse to be stopped.

Right then, Cosmic Smash is apparently coming back as a VR game, titled C-Smash VRS. As an exclusive for the PlayStation VR 2. Sony or Sega or someone tweeted a countdown timer a few weeks ago but we already knew what it was after glancing at it for about 3 milliseconds. And now there's been some sort of official announcement. If I'm honest, I don't really care. Cosmic Smash on the Dreamcast was/is alright, but only in a sort of 'Virtua Tennis against a wall' type way. I don't really know what else to say about it to be honest. It's certainly not a game worth all the hype it is currently (at the time of writing) getting.

I find Cosmic Smash to be a pretty boring experience personally. Once you get over the fact that you're controlling a transulcent person who appears to have no small intestine or anus (would have been way more interesting if he did - I'd love to know what he had for his tea), then you mainly spend your time trying to hit a ball back and forth against a wall and jumping round experimenting with ways you can hit a ball back and forth. People only play squash for a finite amount of time because it isn't that interesting. But this is purely my opinion, and I am wrong on many occasions.

That said: Cosmic Smash in VR could be very cool. The virtual reality tennis games I have had the pleasure of waving a paddle/shoe around in have been enjoyable. Leaping from couch to wall and then onto the ceiling while wearing a VR headset; and being generally athletic could be just the thing needed to give the VR scene the kick up the arse it needs. Oh, and C-Smash VRS looks to include a multiplayer option too (Cosmic Smash on Dreamcast is a single player affair). C-Smash VRS might be the very title VR needs to put a fire under it.

It's nice that Sega is finally looking to games in its back catalogue that aren't Sonic or Mega Drive titles; but can we be honest here? Yes lets. Sega needs to license/resurrect Sega GT, Daytona USA, Fighting Vipers, Jet Set Radio, Spirit of Speed 1937, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, Skies of Arcadia, Virtua Cop, Golden Axe...before looking to Cosmic Smash. Even the most diehard Dreamcast fans don't really consider Cosmic Smash a Dreamcast classic. Might as well revive Soul Fighter or Hoyle Casino.

Go and get hyped over at Polygon or Eurogamer or Reddit if you're that bothered. I'm not, because I can barely afford my electricity bill, let alone a PlayStation VR 2. That said, do feel free to check out our previous article on Cosmic Smash and the multiple hidden characters only revealed 16 years later by Jeremy Hobbs.

The C-Smash VRS website is here.

Faster Than Speed: A closer look at the Atomiswave Need for Speed: Underground clone

Alongside the recently covered Maximum Speed, Sammy's 2004 street racing title Faster Than Speed represents one of only two racing titles released for the Atomiswave arcade platform. Faster Than Speed differs from its stablemate in that it is a street racing title with an emphasis on high stakes, blink-and-you'll-miss-it, one-on-one vehicular duels through neon soaked city streets; in stark contrast to Maximum Speed's more traditional, reality-based stock car racing shenanigans.

Now, while it's quite clear that Sammy plundered Sega's own back catalogue when searching for inspiration for Maximum Speed (it doesn't require a PhD in the field of 'looking at stuff' to see the similarities between Maximum Speed and Daytona USA), the inspiration for Faster Than Speed is - checks notes - unequivocally Electronic Arts' phenomenally successful 2003 underground street racing title Need for Speed: Underground. A game that was released a year earlier than Faster Than Speed and which also offers high stakes, winner-takes-all races in highly tuned import vehicles, through perpetually dark (but beautifully lit) city streets, parks, boardwalks and other civic areas not really designed to be driven through at 100mph.

It's true that other night-themed racers existed in this period (Midnight Club springs to mind), and there were some small, independent art house movies that also touched on the topic at the time, but for me there is no other title that is as heavily borrowed from than Need for Speed: Underground when it comes to the aesthetic or the general demeanour that Faster Than Speed is trying to exude. Hell, even the name is a sort of side-eyed reference to EA's title - they may have the need for speed, but we're faster than speed! 

It's a subtle touch (almost as subtle as Bizarre Creations naming its flagship Xbox racing series after Gotham City in reference to Metropolis being cited in the title of its Dreamcast prequel); yet it is enough to corroborate my suspicions that yes, Faster Than Speed was plopped out by Sammy to cash in on the massive popularity of Need for Speed: Underground. And those small movies about cars that nobody saw. Cough.

Naming and visual conventions aside though, there's precious little else within the Faster Than Speed package that compares favourably to Need for Speed: Underground. That's because, well, Faster Than Speed is (whisper it) a bit naff. Before anyone leaps down my throat I want to qualify that the work done by such amazingly talented people as megavolt85 et al over at Dreamcast-Talk is the reason that Atomiswave games are now able to be played on the Dreamcast console. 

The Atomiswave is about as esoteric and rare as forgotten arcade platforms get, and due to that fact, the vast (vast) majority of people will have either never heard of the system; and even fewer outside of either the arcade collecting scene or - more recently - the Dreamcast scene will have ever had the opportunity to play many of the exclusive titles. Faster Than Speed is one such Atomiswave exclusive and that we now have the ability to sample these uncommon titles is a testament to the devotion of the Dreamcast community in bringing such long-lost games back to the fore. Even in light of the impressive resurrection of the Atomiswave library though, we mustn't turn a blind eye to mediocrity...which unfortunately is exactly where Faster Than Speed conks out.

As stated, Faster Than Speed was released in arcades in 2004. There appear to be two variants of the cabinet made available - both of which seem to be quite rare, according to the user ratings over at the International Arcade Museum. The first is an upright arcade cabinet with a steering wheel, pedals and the kind of bench seat that looks like it would cause irreparable damage to your arse after too long sitting on it; while the other is a sit-down model with a proper racing bucket seat (see the flyer below for details). 

An intriguing sidenote about this system though, is that the documentation (available on an archived snapshot of the Sega Amusements website) makes reference to several update kits, whereby arcade operators could install Faster Than Speed Atomiswave hardware, buttons and marquees in cabinets that previously housed such iconic racers as Rush: The Rock, Cruisn' USA, and even Ridge Racer (the upright cab, not Ridge Racer Full Scale).

The rear of the Faster Than Speed flyer (Image credit: Sega Amusements)

Taking even a cursory glance at the promotional materials for Faster Than Speed, it's quite evident that Sammy was positioning the game as a multiplayer-first experience; the operation manual explains how to go about activating the hidden 'Head 2 Head' mode, whereby two cabinets must be linked together via the optional router and then the Head 2 Head mode be switched on in the Atomiswave system menu. By default, this option is set to off. So what option is there for the arcade proprietor who only owns a singular cabinet? Four player alternate mode, of course!

English Translation Demo of Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka Kenzan released!

I have often heard repeated online that the Dreamcast library was lacking when it came to RPGs... well, I guess that's kind of true, especially in the West. While we received standouts like Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II, along with a few other titles, there's plenty of Dreamcast RPGs that remained relegated to Japan. Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka Kenzan was one of those titles. Today, however, I come bearing great news, as a translator known as SharkSnack has released a partial translation patch that will allow players to experience the game's first region.

Shiren the Wanderer is a series of roguelike RPG titles by Chunsoft (now Spike Chunsoft) that spawned from the Mystery Dungeon franchise (probably most famous for containing the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series of games!) The first Shiren the Wanderer game was released for the Super Famicom in 1995. The series didn't see a Western release until 2008, when that original game was ported to the Nintendo DS.

The Dreamcast entry, Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka Kenzan, was released in 2002, and was developed by Neverland. This title provided players with a side-story to the main series that focused on the character Asuka, a close friend of Shiren the Wanderer. Like other titles in the series, Asuka Kenzan features traditional roguelike gameplay. Graphically, the game looks similar to the series' second entry on Nintendo 64 (which also uses a top-down perspective with pseudo-3D looking sprites), but with an added Dreamcast sheen.

Talking to your sidekick, a ferret called Koppa.

SharkSnack started working on their translation of Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka Kenzan back in May of last year. While it's mostly been a solo effort, they have also had some technical assistance from VincentNL and Derek Pascarella, Ozidual helped look over some of the translation dialogue, and testing was provided by TheKitchenSunk, Harpu and DocHikari.

Speaking with SharkSnack, I was intrigued to know what inspired them to translate this particular game:

"I think Shiren the Wanderer is a charming, underrated series with great gameplay, and Asuka Kenzan is said to be one of the best in the series within the Japanese communities (people still host events and speedrun the PC version of the game on YouTube and Twitch, despite it being such an old game), so I wanted to make it available for players to experience first-hand in English. 

"I also hope that it increases interest in the series and people purchase the official releases to support the series, because the Shiren community would like to see a new release. The most recent release is Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate, which released in 2020 for Switch and Steam.  

"Prior to this, I also completed a fan translation of Shiren the Wanderer 2: Oni Invasion! Shiren Castle! for Nintendo 64, working as a team with Ozidual."

Someone get that dragon some Antacids!

As stated before, what SharkSnack has released today is a partial translation of the game, a "demo", if you will, that allows players to experience the first region called 'Tenrin'. For players who have previous experience with roguelikes or Mystery Dungeon-style games, SharkSnack reckons the demo could take about three hours to finish. If it's your first time, however, the demo could instead take you upwards of six hours or more. If you get stuck, SharkSnack has been working on a strategy guide that you can use. Regardless of your skillset, though, there's a lot of game to experience here. 

SharkSnack elaborated on the overall progress of the translation:

"In terms of overall translation progress, the game is fully translated up to the first end credits (after clearing the second dungeon of the first region, Tenrin). The story continues into a second region called Sairai and there's a lot more game left after that (12 dungeons total), but since none of the dialogue is translated in that region yet, the demo patch is locked to Tenrin areas. 

"If players are determined to continue playing, they can load their save on an unpatched version of the game, travel to Sairai, and switch back to the patched game. The reason I locked it like that is to ensure people wouldn't have to start over from the beginning to experience the rest of the game once it's fully translated."

Being turned into an onigiri by a boss… or should I say a “jelly-filled donut”?

If you enjoy what you play, stay tuned for the full patch at some point in the future. We'll be sure to update you when that time comes. SharkSnack also let us know about some other Shiren the Wanderer translations they have in the works:

"I'm also working on fan translations for Shiren the Wanderer 4 Plus for PSP (with Arc Impulse), and Shiren the Wanderer DS2 for Nintendo DS as well, so basically the long term goal is to have most of the Japanese-exclusive Shiren games in English."

Checking the menu inside a dungeon.

To download the patch, just follow this link to the translation's announcement trailer. Check that video's description to find a link to get the patch, and be sure to subscribe to SharkSnack's channel while you're visiting! The patch can easily be applied to an image of the game using Derek Pascarella's Universal Dreamcast Patcher. The v0.16 build can be played on both real hardware and emulator.

Thanks again to SharkSnack for their hard work on this patch, and for providing me with information and screenshots. Let's hope this is the first of many Japanese-exclusive Dreamcast RPGs we get to see translated into English! Will you be playing Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka Kenzan? Let us know in the comments!

The Typing of the Dead’s Weird and Wonderful Ports

If you have never played The Typing of the Dead, then newsflash: you should. Who would've thought that taking the zombie-splattering action (and beautiful B-Movie voice acting) of The House of the Dead 2 and turning it into a typing game would've been such a great idea? Sega, that's who. For an uncoordinated person like me, who spends his time typing about pointless gubbins on the internet, the keyboard is my weapon of choice for zombie slaying.

I'm sure most who are at least aware of The Typing of the Dead know that it originally started life in '99 in Japanese arcades, before being ported to Dreamcast and PC in 2000, with English versions both releasing in America (but strangely not Europe) a year after that in 2001.

Credit: Thierry Régagnon on Flickr

Other than a typing version of The House of The Dead: Overkill: Extended Cut in 2013, this was the extent of this series' releases in the West. Recently, however, I found myself tumbling down a rabbit hole, Alice in Wonderland-style, that revealed to me the existence of some weird and wonderful ports of this zany title, along with a spin-off and even a sequel that were all released exclusively in Japan. So let's talk about them...

The Typing of the Dead: Zombie Da! Typing Lariat (Windows and Mac, 2007)

First up, we have The Typing Of The Dead: Zombie Da! Typing Lariat, a Japan-exclusive enhanced version of the original game that was released for Windows and Macintosh in 2007. This version featured brand new mini-games as well as a mode where you could compete against a clone of yourself to best your previous score.

While there were two other enhanced Typing of the Dead ports released in Japan prior to this one (titled The Typing of the Dead 2003 and The Typing of the Dead 2004), that both added extra modes, this one is a lot more intriguing because of its Mac port, which was released to be compatible with Mac OS X Tiger (10.4). According to Macintosh Garden, this was 'one of the very few titles that Sega released specifically for Macs in Japan'. 

The absolute bestest thing ever about this port, though, is instead of the HOTD2 characters carrying keyboards with Dreamcasts hooked up to batteries on their backs, they carry Compact Macs. The fact the developers went to the effort to add in such a detail is great; what a beautiful sight to behold. Unless the mere existence of Macs give you an aneurism. If so, we'd hate to tell you how we produce the majority of the Junkyard's content...

Credit: Macintosh Garden

The Typing of the Dead: Zombie Panic (PlayStation 2, 2004)

From one disliked system to another (depending on who you ask), we now move onto The Typing of The Dead's 2004 Japan-exclusive PlayStation 2 port, which came bundled with a USB keyboard, and despite adding the subtitle "Zombie Panic", is mostly the same as the original. Although, according to the ever-helpful Sega Retro, this port incorporates mini-games into the main story. 

This version trades the Dreamcasts for silver fat PlayStation 2 consoles, which results in James and the gang looking like a bunch of Dreamcast deserters who got suckered in by the whole "Emotion Engine" thing. Hope you enjoy watching all those cutscenes in The Bouncer when you're not slaying zombies, you traitors. Bah!

Credit: NintendoComplete

English of the Dead (Nintendo DS, 2008)

Representing something of a missed opportunity, this 2008 Japanese Nintendo DS title was not titled "The Writing of the Dead," because what you have here is a game that aimed to teach Japanese players English words by having them handwrite them with the DS stylus. Occasionally, the game also asks players to complete sentences by selecting words multiple choice-style. Because of its premise, the game is very accessible to English players; although I bet after playing for a while your wrist would get tired (get your mind out of the gutter).

What blew my mind the most about this game, though, is that it recreates the levels of The House of The Dead 2 with some pretty decent 3D graphics for the DS. I recommend checking out this playthrough by NintendoComplete to see this title in action.

Oh, and the characters all carry Sega Mega Drives/Genesis on their backs. I'm not kidding.

Credit: NintendoComplete

The Typing of the Dead 2 (Arcade, 2007/Windows, 2008)

That's right, you read that correctly; exclusively in Japan, The Typing of the Dead received a numbered sequel in arcades and on PC, and it was based on The House of the Dead III! I genuinely had no idea this existed! Looking at gameplay footage of the PC version, it doesn't look like its inaccessible to English speakers (or typers, rather), as you still type English characters, but for the romanisations of Japanese words.

While we sadly never received the original House of the Dead 3 on Dreamcast, the spirit of the console lives on in this Typing of the Dead sequel, because while the characters now wield keyboard-shaped shotguns instead of regular keyboards hanging from their shoulders, they still carry Dreamcasts on their backs, just as they did in the original! 

Credit: NintendoComplete

How many of these Typing of The Dead games were you aware of? Are you going to give any of them a try? Let us know in the comments below!

Credit and thanks to: Mr^Burns who posted the SegaXtreme post that initially brought The Typing of the Dead: Zombie Da! Typing Lariat to my attention, Macintosh Garden, Sega Retro, The Wiki of the Dead and NintendoComplete.