The World's Smallest Dreamcast?

OK, so you've probably seen the Yujin Sega History Collection Dreamcast that comes in a plastic egg like something out of a Dobuita toy machine, but we're confident we've found an even smaller example of Sega's lovely white system. Behold:
This is available from Etsy seller Bricksanity for the equally minuscule price of £1.99, is based on a Lego brick, and is a pretty darn cool novelty item - even more so if you collect Lego. One of these Dreamcast bricks would look amazing in any Lego house, and it comes complete with a controller, VMU, mains plug and RGB Scart cable. Sadly this, much like the fabled cake in Portal, is a lie. In actual fact you only get a controller (of sorts):

This is in no way official, but it's pretty awesome. I wonder if Sega Europe will order the seller to cease and desist...surely not!

Cease & Desist

If you managed to snag a Collectors Guide, you'll be pleased to know that it itself is now a collectable. That's because Sega's legal department has asked The Dreamcast Junkyard to cease sale of the guide as it isn't an official product, and naturally we will honour the request. For transparency, here's the email:

Dear Sirs,

We are pleased that you support the SEGA video game console Dreamcast and we note your creation of the Dreamcast Junkyard Ultimate Collectors Guide Book. This is however an unofficial title which is not authorised nor endorsed by SEGA and for that reason, we ask that you kindly cease sale of this book on your website and/or any other online channels as soon as possible. 

Please can you confirm that you have removed the book by emailing the Legal Dept.

As you will understand, in order to protect the brands within our group companies, we are only able to allow the creation of and promotion of authorised products and platforms.

We thank you for your understanding.

Yours faithfully

Legal Department

SEGA Europe Ltd.

For and on behalf of SEGA Holdings Co., Ltd.

Fair enough. It's not an official product and Sega have every right to request this. After all, they own the Dreamcast copyright and all that jazz. I have replied asking if there's anything we can do to make the book available again, so we'll see what they say. In truth, the upcoming Pix'N Love Dreamcast publication has probably had something to do with this...but c'est la vie! Once again, there is no love lost here (from our side anyway!).

Thanks to everyone who bought one and keep dreaming!

Japanese Dreamcast Promotion Disk

What with all the writing and playing of Dreamcast games lately, I'm developing gnarled claws where my hands should be. I blame that infernal controller with it's guillotine edges. No matter how much lard I rub into my palms, I just can't rid myself of the cramp and so I decided to make a lovely video for your delectation, rather than spend ages hammering out guff on my internet-enabled steampunk typewriter, while simultaneously listening to whale song playing on an 8 track. Hipster? You don't know the half of it squire. 

Anyway, a few weeks ago a chap named James sent me a rather spiffing selection of Dreamcast demos from the shores of Japan, and in amongst said collection was a GD labelled simply as a Dreamcast Promotion Disk. It also has 'not for sale' printed on it, and this piqued my interest. In all honesty, it's probably just a disk for use in shop-based demo pods and the like, but I thought it was worth investigating further. Cast your eyes downward, hit play and all will be revealed!

As ever, if you know more about this disk than I, please share the knowledge in the comments. Edit: it turns out the demo is from the Japanese Dreamcast Magazine, which I kind of suspected seeing as the logo for said periodical popped up at one point in the video. Still, an interesting item nonetheless as all of the other demos from that magazine are numbered and have a completely different look to them. More on those coming very soon!

10 Years Young!

Well, we made it. Today - the 7th December 2015 - marks a decade since this blog first started. Back in 2005 it was simply a place where I intended to document the reconstruction of the Dreamcast collection I had traded for a PlayStation 2 in 2001, but in the ensuing months it became something of a labour of love where every new game and peripheral I snagged on eBay was photographed and 'added to the 'Yard.'

Soon after I started it,  The Gagaman joined the Junkyard and it became a two man operation, with the pair of us adding the occasional post about things we'd bought or games we'd played. We became a threesome (er...) when Barry joined, adding an international flavour with his views from across the pond in the US. The team and the variety of posts continued to grow as we later welcomed Father Krishna and Caleb, and then Martin and NebachadnezzaR, both of whom are no longer on the team here at DCJY but will live on as legends in the Junkyard's hall of fame. Yes, the line-up here at the 'Yard has undergone a few changes over the course of the last decade, but we like to think that the tone has remained constant - one of true passion for Sega's final console.

10th Anniversary Competition Bonus Stage - Winners!

Once again, massive thanks to Play-Asia.com for supplying us with the prizes for this, our final 10th anniversary competition; and thanks to everyone who entered. The VMU images seem to have flummoxed most of you (it wasn't meant to be easy!), but that said most of you got the vast majority of them right. So well done. Before we announce the winners, here are the answers:

How many did you get right? In truth, nobody got them all 100% correct but as stated in the original post, if that happened, the entrants with the next best number of correct answers would be crowned winners and recieve a prize. And so here they are:

1st Prize Winners: Mike Lodato & Alex Young

Runners Up: Yu Kajima, Ricardo Almeida & Anna Frohling

Well done to you all, and thanks again to Play-Asia.com for supplying us with copies of Dux and ReDux. Winners will also get a copy of our DCJY Collectors Guide. We hope you enjoyed the competition, and remember: keep dreaming!

Pier Solar Sega Dreamcast Version First Look

Here's a quick look at Pier Solar on the Sega Dreamcast! As you can see the pixels are all there, but I never found out how to hunt those evil bunny rabbits. Next time they'll get what's coming to them...

Apologies for the wonky sound. My Snowball mic is on the way out. Time to get a better setup.

Rez Infinite Coming To PS4

Rez is one of the Dreamcast's most iconic titles and the blend of trippy visuals and great music mean it is still a favourite with many gamers. The game has been re-released several times since the Dreamcast original in 2001, with PlayStation 2 and HD remakes but now Tetsuya Mizaguchi's musical shooter is heading to the PlayStation 4 with full 1080 HD visuals and VR support. Check out IGN's video below of the Rez Infinite reveal at the recent PlayStation Experience press conference.

It is quite ironic that after all this time, we are still seeing titles that started on the Dreamcast being brought to a new audience in 2015. You can read more about Rez Infinite at the PlayStation Europe blog here. Also, thanks to Ted for the heads up on this.

Official Dreamcast Keyring

Last week I received a small package and inside was a random Dreamcast-related item I bought off eBay. I wasn't totally sure what it was, but after I made this video (and also contacted the seller), it became apparent that it is in fact a somewhat rare, and totally official Dreamcast branded keyring that was given exclusively to staff of Sega Europe back in the day. The seller is an ex-employee and had been using it as a keyring up until the day they decided to flog it. I've never seen a keyring of this design, hence my bafflement at the thing once it appeared in the mail, but I thought it might be cool to share some images of it. The main body is made of solid metal (I'm not sure what type) and is quite weighty, and the wire has unscrewable ends that allow you to loop it through your keys. As I said, I've never seen a keyring of this design before, and certainly not one that's branded with the Dreamcast logo (it appears to be engraved onto the metal). Do you have one of these? Do you know anything more about it? Let us know in the comments!

An Open Letter To Discotek Media

Dear Discotek Media,

Congratulations on securing the rights to release Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girls on physical media in North America (and by default, the rest of Western civilisation). As self-confessed Sega fans, we are eagerly awaiting this release and look forward to the extra content and interviews you will be including alongside the full 13 episode series.

We suspect you guys and gals may also be big Sega fans yourselves, as many of the older series you've published have ties to classic Sega titles as well, such as Fist of the North Star, Golgo 13: The Professional, and Super Dimension Century Orguss. There is certainly a lot of scope for overlap between the Sega and Anime fandoms and markets.


Fist of the North Star (aka Hokuto no Ken) was released as
Black Belt in Western markets. 

This is why we are penning this open letter. There is an exciting opportunity for you to capitalise on the recent “Dreamcast Renaissance.” No less than six new independently published games were released this year, two successful kickstarter campaigns funded additional games for the coming years, and the phenomenal success of Shenmue III took everyone by surprise and elevated Sega and Dreamcast nostalgia back into the mainstream consciousness. The Dreamcast is once again hot property and its star will only continue to rise.