Title Defense: The True Story of Why it Never Came to Dreamcast

Some time after the publication of our article on the lost boxing sim "Title Defense" last year, I was contacted by friend of the Junkyard and all-round Dreamcast super-sleuth PC Wizard. Intrigued by the promise of Title Defense after reading that very article, PC Wizard tracked down a member of the development team (who shall remain anonymous, as we weren't totally sure if any of this was still under some arcane NDA) and made them talk. No doubt with a lamp in their face, CIA style. That’s how I like to imagine how things went down, anyway. 

In reality, PC Wizard sent a polite email asking what our source remembered about Title Defense, and to our pleasant surprise, they actually replied and explained to us what the deal was with that particular pugilism sim, Climax Studios, some of the other canned Dreamcast projects, and why we never saw Title Defense on our Dreamcasts - or any other contemporary platform, for that matter. With all that out of the way, over to our informant...
How mysterious...
"OK, so the first thing to do is to frame this appropriately. At the time, Climax was a work-for-hire developer, which meant most of our work was either porting (often PC to console conversions such as Warcraft II, Diablo, Populous: The Beginning, Sim Theme Park/Theme Park World, etc.) or pitching for projects that publishers were looking for developers to do on their behalf. In addition to this we had our own original concepts that we would pitch to publishers and see if they were prepared to fund. 

So, on to Title Defense. I think the tl;dr on this - and which will probably be most disappointing to know - is that Title Defense as an actual game never really existed. From memory it was a fairly non-interactive PC tech demo to show physics-based dynamic mesh deformation - in this case the changing muscle shape of the boxers as they threw and received punches. 

Once we saw it internally, we decided that it could be the basis of a boxing game and came up with a high-concept design document. We then put out a press release to say that we had started development, naming every high-end system we could think of (including Dreamcast, naturally), as a way of gauging publisher interest and hoping to encourage a few of them to come to talk to us about the game and hopefully sign it. 

We’d just signed a PR agency to represent us to the press so a lot of it was their work, and to be fair to them, they did get us a lot of press! Also, given the interest in Dreamcast at the time, anything that mentioned it as a potential platform was guaranteed to generate hype.
I didn’t have much to do with the concept design of Title Defense as I had doubts about the viability of the project. At the time sports games really needed official licenses to work and Electronic Arts had all of the boxing licenses sewn up with their Knockout Kings series; a lot of the work was done by our Development Director - it really became his 'baby' from an internal championing point of view. 

I think I just gave some feedback, edited and generally knocked it into shape so we could give it to interested publishers. Beyond that we pushed the project to the press and potential publishing partners and the larger management team put detailed business proposals together. 

We did have some discussions with a few publishers and some of them came to see the demo, but in the end none of the discussions got very far. As I suspected, a game like Title Defense really did need official licenses to make much sense. We sent a few proposals out to Acclaim and possibly a few others, but certainly conversations never really advanced beyond that, so eventually the project was shelved as we moved on to other things. So yeah, not much of a story from a Dreamcast point of view but at least now you know why it never saw the light of day!
If memory serves, pretty much all of the titles in the DC-UK feature you showed existed in some form or another, either as paper design docs or demos, or were actual in-development titles on other platforms that either publishers requested or that we were trying to convince them to make. Stunt Driver was a playable PC demo that we pitched as a Dreamcast (plus other ‘next-gen’ platforms) title that came to be responsible for the formation of Climax Brighton, which was then sold to Disney and turned into Black Rock Studios - home of Split/Second.
Of the other titles in that article, Austin Powers Mojo Rally was a project we'd been asked to pitch to Rockstar who had the Austin Powers license at the time - I kid you not! Roswell Conspiracies was an in-development title on the Nintendo 64 for Red Storm based on an animation series, and I think Red Lemon Studios (who were involved in the cancelled Dreamcast shooter Take the Bullet) were doing a game for the Sony PlayStation that may have seen the light of day. Anyway, they asked us to pitch an enhanced Dreamcast port and shortly after cancelled the N64 game. As I recall through the mists of time, there were quite a few Dreamcast titles that we were asked to pitch for - we had very early access to Dreamcast dev-kits that nothing really happened on, mainly as the Dreamcast failed to take off in the way that everyone hoped - oh, what might have been!
I heard much later through the grapevine that was because someone at SEGA Europe thought we were related to the Japanese company Climax Entertainment (known for LandStalker, Time Stalkers and some of the Shining games), and so we were delivered kits in the first wave by mistake!"

***
 

So there we are - straight from the horse’s mouth (well... keyboard)! Title Defense was never really anything more than a glorified tech demo. And it's somehow linked to Rockstar so maybe also Grand Theft Auto. Yeah, I'm really reaching here. Anyway...mystery solved!

Huge thanks to both PC Wizard and our source for helping us shine a light on some of these forgotten Climax Studios games that never were. Maybe somewhere out there in the wilderness, playable builds of Austin Powers Mojo Rally and Roswell Conspiracies are waiting to be unearthed like priceless relics from some forgotten era. The truth, as they say, is out there. Cue X-Files music...

New Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi Games Announced by Sega!

If you are a Sega enthusiast, I'm sure you are already well aware of the big announcement they made last night at The Game Awards. If you still need filling in, then here's the news: Sega have announced new games based on some long-neglected IPs, and much to our delight here at the Junkyard, two of them are Dreamcast staples: Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi! You can view Sega's teaser trailer below.


While not a whole load is known about these two new games other than the brief flash of footage shown in Sega's teaser trailer, they do look really cool. The Jet Set Radio game shown is actually the one which had images leaked following a July 2022 survey from Sega. The footage shows Beat tricking - and also parkouring - around Tokyo-To. The game looks to still retain the series' distinctive cel-shaded look, but appears to opt for more realism in its graphical style. A brand new take on Jet Set Radio's very own DJ Professor K is shown off too. In an interview with Washington Post, Sega of America CEO Shuji UtsumI confirms that “the original creators” are involved in some regard.
The Crazy Taxi game looks great too. The gameplay looks as energetic and flashy as any modern take on Hitmaker's arcade classic should be. The teaser shows a taxi being chased by the police, drifting around large, open streets. The footage also seems to imply that players may also be able to take control of the police car, which makes me wonder if there will be some kind of multiplayer mode involved where some players ride the taxis while others chase them down as the cops... perhaps even the dreaded "games as a service" model based on Fornite that was mentioned back in 2022? Of course, I will save any judgement until I know more, but let's hope that Sega know who the real audience is for these reboots.
The other games announced include some very awesome-looking 3D Golden Axe and Streets of Rage reboots (makes me wish we'd got that cancelled Street of Rage for Dreamcast!), which look very much like they'd be a lot of fun as co-op experiences. The last game showed off is a new entry in the Shinobi series which utilises an absolutely stunning 2D art style. 

At the end of the teaser trailer it is clarified that all the games announced are still in development, so it's probably going to be a bit of a wait before we finally get to play them, or even find out more information, like which platforms they'll be available on (hopefully not mobile exclusives!). The Sega fan community have also picked up on the fact that after the announced games are listed, it reads "and more", meaning there is a potential for even more games (hopefully all reboots!) to be unveiled from Sega at some point. Maybe a HD rerelease of Skies of Arcadia? Shenmue 4? The much anticipated Floigan Bros. Episode 2? Only time will tell...
For now, though, this announcement has made the Sega fan community very happy indeed. It's good to see Sega have finally pulled their finger out after countless years of shrugging off the passionate cries of fans asking them to revisit their abandoned IPs.
They finally did something!
What do you think of these new reboots? Which ones are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments section below or via one of our various social media pages!

Dreamcast Graveyard: Websites We Miss from the Post-Sega Era

While logging into Phantasy Star Online the other night, with my GD-ROM screeching away under the immense pressure of having to load a lobby with three other players, it struck me that my character is now 18 years old. That’s a bloody long lifespan in gaming terms, and in fact, means that this morsel of code stored on my VMU is now quite a bit older than I was when I first brought it into existence. 

Flicking through the guild cards (effectively virtual business cards) my character has amassed, and especially the early ones, I was presented with a snapshot of the Dreamcast scene of yesteryear. In the notes of these cards, aside from the frequent appeals for cannabis legalisation made by idealistic teenage stoners, the URLs of a multitude of Dreamcast fan websites cropped up - the majority of which are sadly now ceased or in a moth-eaten state.

The Grubensau of 18 years ago would be pleased to hear how his dream has now turned into a reality in some parts of the world.

So, instead of tackling one of the many unfinished D.I.Y. jobs that are strewn though my house, I’m scribbling this post and inviting you to celebrate the good times that these fallen virtual-comrades-in-arms gave us. A blog post that contains a list based on nostalgia might be a worn out trope, but that's what I'm serving up, so strap in. In no particular order...

Dreamcast-Scene.com (2002-2018)

The final Dreamcast-Scene website header image.

The project of Max Scharl and a close knit team of associates, Dreamcast-Scene was a bit of a powerhouse back in the day. As their initial moniker of ‘Dreamcast-Petition’ would suggest, their roots lie in directing campaigns for GD-ROM production to continue, and for Dreamcast ports of late-stage Naomi arcade games to be made. How influential these campaigns were is hard to gauge, but the demonstration of consumer demand certainly can’t have hurt, and the subsequent flow of shmup releases on the Dreamcast between 2003 and 2007 no doubt exceeded expectations. 

The DCS crew sticking up for the Dreamcast alongside now defunct import store, Lik-Sang.com
The DCS crew sticking up for the Dreamcast alongside now defunct import store, Lik-Sang.com, at a gaming conference in 2003. Image courtesy of jeuxvideo.com.

Rapidly expanding beyond their founding purpose, the website morphed into a place for Dreamcast news to be reported at a time when mainstream outlets had halted their coverage, and to act as a kind of life-raft for those who didn’t wish to give up on the console after Sega pulled the plug. With in-person events, contests, press releases, t-shirts, and the rest, Dreamcast-Scene was a flame that burned brightly; the website is still online, but has not been updated for five years. Founder Max Scharl would go on to establish indie publisher RedSpotGames that delivered several top quality indie games, including Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles and Sturmwind, which, alas, has also since bit the dust.

Celebrating 25 Years of the Dreamcast and the Kaiju Monster it Rode in on

Well, shit. It’s been 25 years…or 300 months…or over 13 million minutes. That’s how long it’s been since Godzilla Generations was unleashed in Japan.

And the Dreamcast, too, for that matter.

In our house, it's always November 27th, 1998.

I was a tween when I first learned of Sega’s swansong console. Undeterred by President Shoichiro Irimajiri’s creepy disembodied head at the initial Dreamcast reveal, it was ultimately Sonic Adventure which ignited my hype for the platform and all the ambitious and imaginative experiences that would come to define it.

(From EGM #112 November 1998)
Don’t tell tween me that middle-aged me kept this tattered mag. He’d think it was weird and sad and he’d probably be right.

But the blue ‘hog was just the tip of the spear. With unprecedented visual and aural fidelity, groundbreaking online capabilities, intuitive hardware architecture, and a supplemental operating system, the Dreamcast fancied itself as both a developer-friendly haven and bleeding-edge forerunner of gaming’s future.

(Preserved by Unseen64.net)

Elsewhere on the software front, Virtua Fighter 3tb, Get Bass/Sega Bass Fishing, and Sega Rally 2 signaled a renewed commitment to Sega’s iconic arcade experiences at home. Blue Stinger, Pen Pen TriIcelon, and Climax Landers (eventually released as Time Stalkers in the West) flaunted their vibrancy and helped crystallize the Dreamcast’s aesthetic. AM2’s Shenmue – known as 'Project Berkley' at the time – promised to help reimagine how players might inhabit dense and bustling virtual spaces. Meanwhile, the presence of Biohazard: Code Veronica and D2 hinted at resurgent third party support from large and small game makers alike. And Godzilla Generations…was also there.

Although most of Sega’s in-house projects had yet to be unveiled in depth, they’d go on to spark a creative and innovative renaissance that continues to endear the Dreamcast to us a full 2.5 percent of a millennium later.

(From EGM's 1999 Video Game Buyer's Guide)
Some of the other games I was looking forward to.

In the meantime, Sega faced hurricane-force headwinds as it prepared to get the thing off the ground. The community has expressed no shortage of anecdotes for all the challenges stacked against the company at the time. Among them, people often blame the following:

  • Sega’s dwindling financial resources (i.e. capitalism*);
  • A merciless competitive landscape amid Sega’s diminished command of industry trends (also capitalism*);
  • The upcoming launch of the PlayStation 2 (capitalism strikes again!*);
  • Intracompany divisions over the direction and priorities for the Dreamcast across regions;
  • Sega's squandered goodwill with publishers, manufacturing partners, retailers, and consumers through several generations of missteps;
  • Minimal time to prepare for the Japanese launch, yielding a meager day one lineup and delays for several would-be launch window titles;
  • Shifting tides in consumer sentiment (sometimes people just like other things, you know?)
  • Sega being Sega;
  • Obama.

* I mean, maybe Sega just sucked at capitalism and that's totally OK. Would we really love the Dreamcast as much today if it had been managed by a more fiscally responsible and risk-averse company?

To me, Sega’s biggest challenges of the era were inseparable from its identity. The company’s deep-rooted stubbornness and rebelliousness – while enabling its uncompromising creativity and ambition – led it to hang its fortunes on innovations the public was not yet ready to embrace (e.g. online console gaming). At the same time, Sega continued to cling to established conventions which had fueled its past success and legacy but were falling swiftly out of vogue, globally (e.g. its arcade-centric ethos). In straddling the future and past, Sega found itself awkwardly out of step with gaming's present.  Sega was a perpetual pioneer yet it struggled to meet people where they were, or adapt enough to counter its competitors’ most basic strategies to woo them. Sadly — insomuch as we can feel sad for a for-profit corporation — the world was growing ambivalent to Sega’s presence and there wasn’t much anyone could do about it.

(From the What's Shenmue? Dreamcast demo)

In many ways, the Dreamcast’s Japanese launch reflected the history of this turmoil. And charmingly, Sega owned it. The company responded by promoting the platform in perhaps the most human way imaginable. Senior Managing Director Hidekazu Yukawa (R.I.P.) became the literal face of the Dreamcast to the point his image was emblazoned on a later edition of the console’s retail box. People knew him as Mr. Sega.

Sega’s Japanese Dreamcast advertising campaign was unconventionally humble and earnest, a likely reflection of Yukawa-san himself. Abandoning the brutish bluster of Segata Sanshiro’s salesmanship, Yukawa wore a friendlier face and carried a more genuine demeanor. Acknowledging the dire situation Sega found itself in, he made a gentler appeal to players. He was simply grateful for the chance they may invite the Dreamcast into their homes.

(via Advermax on Youtube) 
Yukawa-san was just doing his best.

The Yukawa TV ads rolled with the punches with humility if not grace. In an early spot, demon children haunted Yukawa’s nightmares, exclaiming they didn’t need Sega just before a rift opened and swallowed him into an abyss. And when production challenges hobbled Sega’s ability to produce enough Dreamcasts to meet retail targets, Yukawa-san dedicated an ad to apologizing for the stock shortages while fans pelted him with trash (gamers, amirite?). Meanwhile, his wife wondered when he’d be done with making all these stupid commercials. It was a pitiful ad campaign in that Yukawa-san and Sega actively solicited our pity.

So yeah. Sega was having a rough time even without a new generation of competition looming in the next millennium. As such, the company aimed to seize as much of a head start as possible, hastening the Dreamcast to the Japanese market just to get it out into the world. No doubt Sega of Japan needed to start generating revenue and building a user base sooner rather than later. So as a byproduct of that, there was little time to develop games ahead of the Japanese launch. In fact, the Dreamcast rolled out with four whole titles on day one.

The Dreamcast lobster

I recently revisited those Japanese launch games, so I'll ramble about them next...

Christmas DreamPod - Audience Participation Sought by 30 November!

Santa Clause makes an appearance in Shenmue

Update: submissions have now closed! You can hear the episode here.

I apologise off the bat for raising the spectre of Christmas when we are barely half way through November. I know some will be dismayed by the ever expanding time and space which this particular festival occupies - not least retail workers who are bracing for the onslaught of Mariah Carey and Slade songs on endless loop. If Christmas isn’t really your thing, for whatever reason, then that is cool by us. 

However, if you are partial to the festive spirit, and are willing to countenance prematurely dipping your toes into it, even if just for a moment, then please read on.

The Junkyard crew have been invited to partake in RadioSEGA's wonderful 'Winterfest'; a veritable marathon of Sega related audio productions which is due to take place in December. However, we've decided that we really can't be gabbing on about Christmas themed levels in Dreamcast games once again, despite how much we may adore them (except Mike, our resident Grinch, who we cherish nonetheless). Therefore, this year, we’re hoping to record an episode that is infused with a hearty dose of audience participation. 

To make our forthcoming Christmas DreamPod episode something special, we’d love to hear from you, the dear readers and listeners who make the Junkyard a worthwhile endeavour. So, pour a sherry, snaffle a mince pie from the secret stash, and send a message to dreamcastjunkyard (at) gmail dot com by Thursday the 30th of November that covers one (or all) of the following:

  1. Cracker Competition: miniature nail clippers and those weird fortune telling fish are fine and dandy, but wouldn’t it be so much better if a VMU dropped out of your Christmas cracker? Pitch us your Dreamcast-themed cracker, including a) the design of the cracker and paper hat, and b) the gift(s) contained within. Bad jokes are welcome too, of course. Our esteemed guests will pick a winner on the pod and all entries will be given a shout-out. 
  2. Carollers… but, you know, Dreamcasty ones: instead of politely grinning through an off key rendition of silent night, wouldn’t it be grand if you got to hear your favourite Dreamcast game song belted out on your doorstep? How about Sonic Adventure’s ‘Open Your Heart’ lovingly rendered by Metallica? Or Yu Suzuki rattling through ‘The Whole New World’ from PSO? Let us know who you want to see carolling and what they would be singing. Entries will be featured on the pod.
  3. Dreamcastic Christmas Tales: For those are perhaps unsure of what to submit for the above, you could always just tell us some of your abiding memories of Christmases past that involve the little white box. What game do you replay for the umpteenth time every boxing day? Is multiplayer Power Stone brought out before or after dinner? Has Santa ever left you any Dreamcast-related gifts? A selection of submitted stories will feature on the pod, so be sure to let us know all the wee details. Photos would be appreciated immensely too if you have them and will likely feature on an accompanying blog post for the episode.

All those who lend us their Dreamcastic Christmas ideas will of course gain a permanent spot on the DCJY ‘nice’ list, and will also be entered into a draw for some Dreamcast-related stocking fillers. Two winners will be randomly selected and contacted by the time the pod airs to arrange delivery.

Prizes up for grabs by those who answer our call

So, don those ideas caps and get scribbling! Once again, the address to write to is dreamcastjunkyard (at) gmail dot com. We eagerly await your response.

New Dreamcast Compatible Arcade Fight Stick heading to IndieGoGo!

We've seen a lot of new indie hardware teased or released for the Sega Dreamcast in the last few years - such as the VM2 and a number of new controllers - but what with the popularity of fighters on the system, it was only a matter of time before someone produced an arcade/fight stick for it. Well, that is exactly what is going to happen as Turkish company TR Fight Stick are heading to IndieGoGo on November the 18th to pitch their "Octopus" arcade fight stick to the world.

Based in Istanbul, Turkey, TR is known for producing precision quality fight sticks and other arcade accessories, but it was not for these products that they previously crossed the radar of the Junkyard. Back in 2018, TR advertised the "Dreamcase", a metal shell that could house your GDEMU in the interest of keeping everything compact and sleek. While this idea wasn't one I noticed taking off much with Dreamcast owners, TR's latest Dreamcast-related project is definitely sure to. I mean, who doesn't love a nice arcade stick? 

TR reached out to us the other day to inform us about this upcoming project, and I must say the Octopus looks like a really nice bit of kit, and that's just from seeing prototype images (like the one above), as well as the trailer the company put out to promote their campaign. See listed below all of the bells and whistles we can expect from this upcoming controller:

  • Compatible with the Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, MiSTer, and more. 
  • Custom built Dreamcast Encoder PCB: this arcade stick offers a built-in next-gen backlit VMU and 10 separate internal memory cards. You can swiftly swap the internal VMUs with a combination of buttons.
  • Connection is wired for microscopic latency.
  • A layout inspired by the ergonomic Vewlix layout, which is designed for lengthy gaming.
  • Non-slip padding ensures the controller is comfortable and stays put during intense gaming sessions.
  • Both analogue and digital control modes available. 
  • Changeable artwork for personal flair. 
  • Activate Turbo button for turbocharged game sequences. 
  • Start button on the rear and a tournament lock switch to prevent unauthorised changes. 
  • Uses the Open Stick Community's GP2040-CE multi-platform gamepad firmware.
  • SOCD Remover. 

While I'm not exactly quite sure what an "SOCD remover" is, I'm sure some fighting game buff somewhere just nodded their head with satisfaction upon hearing that information. Just giving you all the facts I can, folks. Anyway, check out the teaser trailer below to see some cool 3D renders of this potential product.

The IndieGoGo campaign for the Octopus launches on Saturday the 18th of November, at 8AM PST. A portion of the funds will go to aid recovery efforts for the earthquake that struck Turkey back in February of this year. TR can be found on Twitter if you want to follow them for further updates about this campaign.

Do you like the look of this fight stick? Do you think it's exactly what you need to enhance your Capcom vs. SNK gameplay experience? Let us know in the comments below or on one of our many social media pages.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Review or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Funk

Jet Set Radio (or as it was known in North America, Jet Grind Radio) came skating onto the scene in the year 2000. Developed by Sega's in-house studio Smilebit, the flagship Dreamcast release saw players enrol in the rollerblading GGs gang to claim their turf back from their rivals, one graffiti tag at a time, all whilst evading the clutches of the law. A platformer at heart, JSR was fun gameplay-wise, but what kept me and many others coming back for more was undoubtedly its revolutionary cel-shaded graphics, along with its premise, style and music - all a loving tribute to hip-hop and street culture. The exceptional soundtrack, the majority of which was composed by Hideki Naganuma, combined elements of hip-hop, J-pop, funk, electronic dance, rock, acid jazz, and trip-hop, and has been lauded by fans the world over to the point where it's almost taken on a life of its own outside of the game.

North American magazine ad for Jet Grind Radio

In the years following Jet Set Radio's release, Sega stopped making consoles and moved to being a third-party developer. Initially things were pretty good, with a wide range of their IPs receiving new titles or reboots, including Jet Set Radio, which received a beloved sequel/re-imagining on the original Xbox in the form of 2002's Jet Set Radio Future.

But, with series developers Smilebit closing their doors in 2004, and Sega's attention to any IP that wasn’t Sonic slowing to a drip feed over the following decade, the possibility of a new entry into the JSR series became less likely with each passing year. We did see a HD remaster during the seventh generation, which was cool, but the fully fledged third instalment many players have been waiting for just never happened.

The album cover for 2 Mello's "Memories of Tokyo-To"

During the series' absence, a cult community of fans slowly began to form around Jet Set Radio, with its art style and music finally being appreciated for how excellent it really is. A fan developed a whole website to stream JSR tunes 24/7, while artists like 2 Mello made entire albums in the style of the JSR sound. Many new indie titles like Umarangi Generation and Hover aimed to emulate that funky cel-shaded feeling we were sorely missing. Seeing this community of fans and creators blossoming around JSR really got me thinking... with the series' strongest suit undoubtedly being its aesthetic style and music, and with aspects such as the story and character's personalities taking a backseat (with perhaps the exception of DJ Professor K), it made me wonder: could someone else make Jet Set Radio? We'd witnessed it in the indie space for years, with titles like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Shovel Knight and Cities: Skylines filling the void left behind by the neglect of bigger developers. For me, Jet Set Radio’s best asset is not that it was made by Sega. Sure, the genius minds of Dreamcast-era Sega gave it its best assets, but the fact that Jet Set Radio's winning formula has been abandoned for so long, that it hasn't had the chance to be developed further, to become bigger and better with the power of modern systems, to be re-introduced to a new generation of gamers, is criminal, frankly. As long as the right people were involved, Jet Set Radio could come back in style, even if it meant sacrificing the name.

Lethal League Blaze

The answer to my prayers came in 2020, when Dutch indie developer Team Reptile teased Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Having previously worked on Lethal League, an excellent series of fighting games that feature cel-shading and character designs reminiscent of Jet Set Radio, and with the second game, Lethal League Blaze, even featuring a song from Hideki Naganuma, it was no surprise that Team Reptile were going to attempt a spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio for their next release. From their short teaser alone, I immediately knew they were the right people for the job. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk looked so much like a new Jet Set Radio game that I would've forgiven you for thinking it was made by Sega themselves. The teaser even featured a Naganuma track. It was finally happening!

Despite this, I still saw a fair amount of scepticism online. Some loyalists said they'd just wait for Sega's Jet Set Radio. Some even went as far as to accuse Team Reptile of "plagiarism". C'mon guys, it has been more than 20 years since Sega released an original entry into the Jet Set Radio series. To bastardise that famous lyric from John Lennon:

"All we are saying is, give Bomb Rush Cyberfunk a chance"

On the day it released, I bought Bomb Rush Cyberfunk for the Nintendo Switch, as that was the only console it was available for initially, and I don’t have a gaming PC, so that option was out. From the outset, the game's cel-shaded look, music and sound effects all felt familiar to me. It was great to jump back into that grinding and tagging gameplay I loved so much, to be transported right back to those special moments of playing the original JSR and Future for the first time. But Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is quick to remind you that while it remains incredibly faithful to its source material, it isn't completely derivative of it. Instead, Team Reptile are here to build and improve, which is exactly what I wanted to see from a spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio. I've always sung the praises of the gameplay refinements that Jet Set Radio Future introduced to the series, and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is no different, picking up where that game left off but now with the benefit of twenty years of hindsight in its arsenal. Throughout this review, I will be calling back to JSR and Future many times to explain how BRC successfully builds on - or even improves - the formula, but please don't understand this as me disparaging the JSR series at all. Both Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future will forever remain two of my most favourite games of all time.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk's plot, while still containing the appropriate dose of hip-hop and street culture references you'd expect, is crazy, and immediately more involved than either of the JSR games. Rather than functioning as stylish avatars for your rollerblading escapades, the main set of characters of the Bomb Rush crew have unique personalities and converse with each other in cutscenes, much of which is humorous and often eccentric. The main character, Red, has a purpose - to get his head, which was chopped clean off his shoulders in the game's prologue, back, while also looking to investigate the past of his replacement head (I said the plot was crazy, didn't I?).

The rival crews, still serving as your opponents throughout the game, also have more purpose in the plot, as Red and his crew not only look to defeat them to become "All City" (to claim all turf in the city), but also to gain information to aid in their hunt for Red's origins. While I won't spoil the plot here, all I'll say is the whole idea of Red being a character patched together from the body and head of two different characters, and the duality that brings, is one of the more refreshing plot ideas I've had the pleasure of experiencing in a video game as of late. There are plenty of surprising twists and turns you may not have been expecting from a game that many will be turning to primarily for its aesthetic qualities, and it is certainly refreshing to see.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk's cast of characters are all varied in design and dripping with style, with their clothing combining the aesthetics and fashion of not only hip-hop and its b-boy subculture, but also the skate culture of the early 2000s, with some sci-fi flair thrown in for good measure. Characters like Red, with his crimson "cyberhead", and the angel-winged crash dummy Solace stand out as the coolest of the bunch, while story characters like the "oldheads" are more amusing, looking like caricatures of golden age hip-hoppers with their maroon tracksuits and over-sized Kangol-esque hats. One of them even has a cyberhead that looks suspiciously like the mask of the late MF DOOM. DJ Cyber's cold cybernetic mask and long stylised lab coat really set him apart as the menacing antagonist he is and the Dot EXE crew just look fresh as hell with their pool ball cyberheads and two stripe tracksuits. Team Reptile really knocked it out of the park when it came to matching the imaginative character design seen in the games BRC takes influence from, so much so that you will undoubtedly be searching around the game's city to track down more peeps to add to your posse.

Depending on how you look at it, one potential flaw of BRC's playable characters could be that none of them have any stats, meaning that your decision on who to play as solely comes down to how cool you think they look. Jet Set Radio did assign stats to each character, which meant there was a bit of strategy involved when making your choice of whom to tackle a particular level with, but I suppose ultimately it's probably better to be able to play as your favourite character without their weaker stats holding back your enjoyment, and it does feel great to be able to constantly switch between BRC's aesthetically pleasing cast of characters just 'cause.

Credit: JREEL on YouTube

So we've got a great storyline and some cool characters, but how's the gameplay?

A Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Prototype is Running on the Dreamcast!

Just three weeks ago, a video went up on YouTube from a creator called Frogbull showing off their very own prototype of Metal Gear Solid running on the Sega Saturn. Seemingly looking to prove wrong the naysayers claimed MGS could never have run on the Saturn, the results looked very impressive, and definitely had many Sega fans intrigued to see what was next from Frogbull. Little did I expect, however, that next we'd see Metal Gear Solid's sequel, Sons of Liberty running on the Dreamcast. But don't just take my word for it, see it for yourself below!

Seeing this game in action on the Dreamcast is simply mind blowing. It was also really cool to learn that this homebrew prototype build was developed using Luke Benstead's Simulant Engine (with tools from Jayveer and SecaProject). I also loved the tribute at the end of the video to the late Hidekazu Yukawa. Excellent job, Frogbull.

While this prototype build isn't currently available to download to play for yourself, we here at the Junkyard will definitely be keeping an eye on Frogbull's future work. If you want to do so as well, go follow them on Twitter here. They also have a Patreon that you can support here.

Dreamcast-Themed Ale Spotted!

Credit to Anthony DeCenzo on Untappd
A post from T-Rodge on Twitter yesterday showcased the existence of a Dreamcast-themed ale from the Maine, USA brewery “Odd By Nature”. 

While I’m not an alcohol drinker, I do appreciate some of the fun pop culture themed ales I see from time to time on social media, and Odd By Nature’s output is no exception. Their designs cover everything from video games like Contra, Super Mario Bros. and Grand Theft Auto V, to the music of rapper Mac Miller (R.I.P.), Sublime and Limp Bizkit.

But the reason why you’re here: back in May, Odd By Nature released a cream ale themed after the Dreamcast. Its name? Creamcast.
Credit to Eric Latulippe on Untappd
Presumably not a reference to the parody console from Rent-A-Hero No. 1, but a comment on the type of ale it is, Creamcast has 4.3% units and is described as a “light and refreshing cream ale, with a smooth creamy taste and a slightly sweet finish”.

If you want to try Creamcast for yourself, it unfortunately appears to just be something that locals can get hold of. The Brewery itself is located in Cape Neddick, Maine. We did find this place to purchase it online but they don't ship alcohol 'cause laws, so that'd be a pickup in Portland or Gorham, Maine.

Update: GGDreamcast went to the brewery yesterday to track down this ale and said it was nowhere to be found, so it must have sold out! Who knows if it’ll be reproduced again?
The Creamcast's full label/wrap. Again, credit to Untappd.
Maybe we Brits can't get our hands on a can, but it's always good fun to take a look at some Dreamcast novelty items. For more drunken Dreamcast shenanigans, check out Tom's post from 2015 about the person who made a Dreamcast controller beer tap. Matter of fact, that could be the perfect tap to dispense Creamcast from... Odd By Nature should track one down...

Prototypes of Retro-Bit's Upcoming Dreamcast Controllers Finally Revealed

Photo courtesy of SHIRO!

Let's face it, the Dreamcast controller isn't exactly beloved. Sure, it was the tool that granted us the ability to experience some of the best games to ever exist, but unfortunately suffers from a not very ergonomic shape, a single uncomfortable analog stick, a funky D-pad (no, not the Jet Set Radio kind of funky), and a wire that comes out of its butt. Probably it's best attribute is the fact that it is compatible with a variety of accessories like the VMU memory unit, the rumble pack and the microphone, but those don't make up for how sore your hands feel after an intense sesh of Maken X.

Anyway, those who frequent the Dreamcast community may recall that Retro-Bit, a manufacturer of all kinds of aftermarket retro gaming accessories, including officially licensed recreations of Sega controllers, announced a redesigned Dreamcast controller in 2020 with an ETA for later that year. In 2021, they provided an update to say that due to manufacturing shortages, the controller had been delayed. Finally, at this year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo, Retro-Bit finally offered us a glimpse of these much anticipated pads.

Photo courtesy of SHIRO!

Thanks to our friends at Sega Saturn, SHIRO!, those who didn't attend the convention were able to get a look at these in progress prototypes of both a wired and wireless variant of Retro-Bit's controllers via some photos they uploaded to Twitter. Matching the original designs presented to us in 2020, these upcoming controllers feature a more comfortable-looking recessed analog stick (compared to the dome design of the original), a Sega Saturn style D-pad, redesigned trigger buttons, and six face buttons that are laid out in a slanted orientation more suited for fighting games, with the C and Z buttons doubling to mirror the L and R triggers. On the wired version, the wire comes out of the top. This means there is now only one VMU slot available, however the controller does include built-in rumble, and if you're anything like me, the rumble pack is all that second slot gets used for anyway.

The wireless Bluetooth version shown off does not have a built-in VMU slot, and instead opts for the use of a VMU receiver dongle, which is similar to what we've seen from the upcoming Retro Fighters StrikerDC wireless controller. A possible reason we're seeing this workaround from companies like Retro Fighters and Retro-Bit was explained to us in our Discord by our pal Derek Pascarella (not affiliated with either company, just a bit of a tech whizz), who explained that not only can Bluetooth connections be interrupted which can lead to save data being corrupted, but also the "madness of trying to synchronise timings of a Bluetooth signal with strict MAPLE bus timings for Dreamcast input peripherals". Very good, what he said. So far, the only person to pull off this technical feat of allowing VMU support in a wireless controller is Chris Diaoglou with his DreamConn, and we can only imagine how much time and effort that took him to pull off.

Retro-Bit's dongle connects from USB-C to the Dreamcast controller port, stands vertically, and even has a little kickstand for extra support. Retro-Bit's wireless controller will also ship with a compatible USB dongle for compatibility with PC, Mac and an array of modern consoles.

Photo courtesy of SHIRO!

At the expo, SHIRO! also filmed an interview with Retro-Bit's Marketing and Product Specialist Andreas Ordonez, where he showed the controllers off a bit more, and also answered some very important questions. Andreas confirmed that various aspects of the controller are still being improved and ironed out, such as the form-factor, and how the VMU receiver will operate. With this in mind, he said we may hear more in 2024 depending on how everything progresses. As for pricing, he speculated that it would possibly by in the $49.99 range and not much more than that, with the wired version obviously being cheaper, although an idea of price wasn't given for that one.

I do like the idea of having a Saturn-style D-pad and an improved analog stick, but I'm personally not as keen on the drastic change to the layout of the standard A, B, Y, Z button layout, and perhaps wished they'd opted more for something like that of the Mad Catz Dream Pad, that preserves their original position (I never thought I'd praise something Mad Catz made). Also, while it's not so much an issue for me, the form factor still looks very similar to that of the original controller, which many have criticised for being unergonomic, so to have all these potential improvements but keep that original shape seems a bit of a misstep. But of course, these are just prototypes, so are subject to change from what we should expect from the final product.

Anyway, let us know what you think of these prototypes in the comments section below, or via one of our many social media channels. A big thanks goes out to Sega Saturn, SHIRO! for their coverage of these controllers. Be sure to go check out their website.

Dreamcast shooter Trizeal has been Translated into English!

Only days after reporting the news that an English fan translation patch has been released for one Dreamcast shoot 'em up (Under Defeat), we've already received another, and this time it's for Triangle Service's 2005 vertical-scrolling shmup Trizeal. The patch was created by the one and only Derek Pascarella, and I must say, I'm feeling a bit of deja vu...

Fact about this game: the head of its tiny development team begged fans to purchase it upon release because the arcade game it is a port of didn't do that well financially. Despite this, Trizeal is definitely not a title to sniff at. While it isn't often brought up in conversations about Dreamcast shmups, and lacks some of the gimmicks seen in other more acclaimed DC shooters, it is still a high-octane romp that can be enjoyed by any seasoned genre fan.

While the game doesn't have anything in the form of a storyline, Derek's patch translates all Japanese in-game text/graphics, and even improves some instances of English text. Something cool that Derek has also added to this patch is a new unlimited continues option that can be toggled on and off during gameplay by pressing the L and R Trigger buttons simultaneously. A small asterisk will appear next to "1P SCORE" during gameplay to indicate unlimited continues is on.

To download Derek's fan translation patch, just head to its dedicated GitHub page to download it. For detailed steps on how to apply the patch for your desired method of play (i.e. burning to a CD-R, playing on an ODE), see the patching instructions section of the README.

Are you a fan of Trizeal, or are you going to give it a go now this patch has been released? Let us know in the comments below, or by hitting us up on one of various social media channels!

The Hunt for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox versions of the Sega Dreamcast

Over the years, fans of the Sega Dreamcast have had the opportunity to see many interesting and artistic case mods, but some of the oldest to make a splash in the Dreamcast scene were the ones you see below; case mods designed to look like the Dreamcast's sixth generation competitors: Microsoft's Xbox, Nintendo's GameCube and Sony's PlayStation 2.
Cool designs? Or heresy against the Dreamcast? These case mods have had many fans and detractors over the years.
Long-time fans may dimly recall seeing pictures of these customised Dreamcasts making the rounds on Dreamcast forums and fan websites as early as 2002. The pictures have continued to show up over the last 20 years on various forums, fan sites and social media pages across the internet (including a 2006 post on this very blog), although genuine information about their origin has tended to be scarce. Given their relatively polished-looking designs and their appearance around the time of the Dreamcast’s commercial death, theories and rumors have spread that a Japanese gaming magazine or even Sega themselves may have commissioned them to use in conjunction with a story or announcement about Sega’s decision to create games for third party systems. Some critics have even gone as far as to argue that the images were mere Photoshop creations and never even truly existed.

After being reminded of these designs through a chance encounter with a fan who had found the GameCube design for sale on an online marketplace, I set off on the complex mission of discovering the truth about these mysterious custom Dreamcasts. I searched my own memory, trawled through defunct websites of yesteryear on the Internet Archive, and even managed to track down and discuss the case mods with the original Japanese creator. After all of this, I can finally provide the authentic story of these early and unusual custom designs.

The Creator

Enter G-Cube – the name of a group of Japanese model kit builders. In the early 2000s, G-Cube was a group of three people who would get together and use their extensive modeling, graphic design and painting skills to cosmetically enhance existing model kits, toys and other items. 
One of many logos used by G-Cube
Their projects involved assembling things such as retail model kits with highly detailed custom paint jobs, some of which would also have significant modifications, including custom fabricated parts, to make finished products that were substantially different from their original design. The group’s work often included designs for mecha, figures, spaceships, and other vehicles from anime and video games. Over the years, G-Cube’s creations would be profiled in Japanese hobby magazines, and the group would even display their work at public exhibitions and festivals. The group would also take commissions from customers, and to this day, G-Cube puts recent creations up for sale on Yahoo! Auctions Japan from time to time.
Various older works by G-Cube
I was fortunate enough to find contact information for a Mr. Fuminori of G-Cube, who as luck would have it, was the designer behind all three of the Dreamcast case mods shown above. The following is a summary of information about each of the case mods...