Five Dreamcast Games Better Than Street Fighter V

February 26, 2016, 9:50 am

≫ Next: Guest Article: The Great Serial Connector Hunt

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It’s no secret that the launch of Street Fighter V has been more than a little disappointing; an unfinished story mode, no arcade mode, a broken online component and the implementation of a quite frankly scary pay-to-unlock system.

While 'real' journalists have mostly rated the game highly, giving it the benefit of the doubt and assuming that because the core gameplay is solid, it will one day live up to their review scores, many fans have been extremely vocal in expressing their displeasure at the direction in which Capcom has taken the series. After spending a few days with the game myself, I’d mostly agree with them.

Probably not the best place to practice your drumming.

My first impressions were somewhat positive. The core gameplay and mechanics are certainly up there with the best in the series (if perhaps a little too similar to SFIV), but unfortunately it's been released in a drastically unfinished state. The general presentation and structure feels more like a free-to-play MOBA than a new entry to one of gaming’s biggest and longest running franchises. That’s all fine and dandy with me, many MOBAs are of high quality, but where they crossed the line was by charging full retail price. Capcom, you can’t have your cake and eat it. Either market and price the game as a free-to-play entry, or wait until the game is complete and release it in a finished form that warrants the price tag.

Unfortunately, this is the direction in which modern gaming seems to be moving these days. Welcome to the future...isn’t it just splendid?

Thankfully, as Dreamcast owners we have a wealth of Street Fighter games that, as crazy as it sounds, were actually completed before being pressed and immortalised onto GD-Roms. It’s insane the efforts these devs went to back in the day. Didn’t they realise? We’d have happily chucked money at any old half-baked turd. If only they’d shoved them in cheap metal cases and slapped the words 'limited edition' on the front, we’d have paid double! They must be kicking themselves at the potential lost earnings from the past couple of decades but fear not - they're making up for it now. And then some.

Anyway, I digress. Here are the DCJY team’s favourite Street Fighter-related Dreamcast games...OF ALL TIME!

Tom – Marvel Vs Capcom 2
I'll be the first to admit that I'm something of a novice when it comes to 2D fighters. I can remember the first time I played the original Street Fighter on my Amstrad CPC 464+ all those years ago and I was never taken with it. This didn't really change when Street Fighter 2 came to the Super Nintendo. I recall borrowing it from a friend at school and playing it on my sisters' SNES for all of about 10 minutes before losing interest. I know that probably sounds like sacrilege now, but that's just how it was. The same was true of most 2D fighters to be honest - Mortal Kombat, Eternal Champions, Rise of the Robots...actually, even the most fervent fighter fan would struggle to enjoy that last one so forget I mentioned it. I had a few notable titles on the Saturn (and Rakuga Kids on the N64) but it wasn't until the Dreamcast era that I really started to enjoy the 2D fighting genre, and the game that opened my eyes to how awesome they could be was Marvel Vs Capcom 2.

Twenty to two and people are fighting in the street. Shocking.

The bright, well animated sprites mixed with the impressive polygonal backdrops - it certainly looked unlike anything I'd seen in a fighter of this ilk previously. I know it wasn't the first game to mix these effects, but I was ignorant back then. Recently, I have warmed to the fighting games on the Dreamcast, launching myself into stuff like Guilty Gear X, the KOF series and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The thing is, even though all of these titles ooze quality, none of them comes close to Marvel Vs Capcom 2 in the 'pick up and play' department. The way in which you can just choose a team of three characters from the fantastic roster and instantly start hammering out all kinds of insane pyrotechnic specials is nothing short of brilliant. I'm not one to sit poring over manuals or lists of moves so I usually just resort to trying the old fail safe combos and button presses in order to make something awesome happen, and due to the control scheme in Marvel Vs Capcom 2 I do manage to get some enjoyment out of it. Actually, I manage to get a lot of enjoyment from it.

She's laddered her tights.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I chose this game for this list. Marvel Vs Capcom 2 allows even the most cack-handed of gamers (that's me, folks!) to look and feel like they're actually half decent at it. For me Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is the complete package - it's got a ton of amazing characters, some brilliant music and the way it plays is a great mix of n00b-friendly button mashing and expertly timed combo administration. Personally, I don't think it can be beaten on the Dreamcast.

Doc Eggfan – Street Fighter Alpha/ Zero 3
Let me start at the beginning, I was there when the original Street Fighter II arcade machine was a big thing. I played it at my local bowling alley whenever I was there. I played it in the back room of my small independent local video rental store almost everyday on the walk home from school. Whenever I see an original World Warrior arcade machine and hear that iconic attract music, my nostalgia gland explodes into a rainbow of endorphic bliss. In the wilderness years, I envied my SNES owning cousin until the glorious day that Championship Edition was released for my dear old Mega Drive and I played it to death with all characters and difficulty levels. My skills were second to none, and as Ryu (I know, boring) I would spam fireballs with gay abandon and with well timed roundhouse kicks to counter any aerial manoeuvres or a sneaky leg sweep if my opponent stayed grounded, I was unbeatable. Yep, I was that guy. Everyone hated me, and life was good.

Gets me every time. Can you hear the music too?

As the world turned and everyone moved on to the 32-bit/64-bit era, my loyalty to the ageing Mega Drive/Mega CD/32X monstrosity that I had constructed was unwavering, mainly because I was a dirt poor country bumpkin back then. The local arcades closed down, so I had no access to the successive generations of 2D fighters that came after Super Street Fighter II. As the genre evolved, I became out of touch with the super bar, super combos, custom combos, air blocking, air counters, team play, assist characters, parries, guard parries, air parries, etc. When I finally came back to the genre when I picked them up for Dreamcast years later, I was rudely shocked to find out just how bad it had become. I used to be a Street Fighter god, why do I keep getting my arse handed to me on a silver plate? I loved Grand Master Challenge for the nostalgia factor, but the game was named appropriately, because it continually and brutally reminded me that I was nowhere near as good as I thought I was, and it made me doubt I was ever any good at Street Fightering at all. I really tried to get into Third Strike, as I hear good things about it once it clicks, but I continue to resist learning the new formal defensive mechanics. Back in my day, all you needed to counter was a well-timed offensive move. I stuck with it for a while and managed to get to Gill, but after hours of trying to defeat him, rage quit and never played it again. Ever since, whenever I hear the word 'resurrection' I want to punch someone in the face.

I hate you. So very, very much.

So, almost by default, my favourite Street Fighter game on Dreamcast is Street Fighter Zero 3. It allows me to ignore all the advances the genre has made in regards to defensive play by choosing the X-ism fighting style, which balances my inability to learn new things with a slightly more damaging offensive style. It also brings back all of my favourite characters from the Street Fighter II era, so it has a good mix of the familiar and the new.

The NAOMI version was one of the few arcade games that allowed you to plug in your Dreamcast's controller and VMU to unlock playable characters.

The game also holds the best memories for me, as I ran a small tournament at work once with the NAOMI conversion Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper, and found some like minded players who also had fond memories of the old era. Maybe one day I'll try and get up to speed with the modern play style, but for now Zero 3 panders to my crotchety old sensibilities, and for me is the most fun.

Caleb – Capcom Vs SNK Millenium Fight 2000
I struggled to figure out what game to pick for this article so I just decided to go with the one that I put the most hours in. This is the game I pop in to test controllers and the case is so beat it up I refer to it as the 'black tape edition' because it's held together with electrical tape. Millennium Fight 2000 is an amazing port of the arcade release and is very good at introducing the ratio and groove system.

Combining Capcom and SNK fighters into one game was crazy at the time.

People do specifically hate on the ratio system, but kudos to Capcom for attempting to try something new. I have run many video game events in the past and this game is easier to pick up and understand than the 6 groove system in Capcom vs. SNK 2. Honestly though, 'Millionaire Fighting' is a way better title. My main team was Cammy and Sagat all the way! I felt their move sets really complemented each other and kept my opponents off their game. Let me know who you main in the comments.

Ryo, the original rip off of Ryu.

Gagaman - Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike

For all it's modern day graphical detail and art style flourishes like paint whooshing around the characters of Street Fighter V, there's still something about the third instalment of the mainline series that as an animator enthusiast appeals to me much more. The sprites in this game are still to this day some of the most beautifully animated ever seen in a fighting game, and unlike Street Fighter IV which is already starting to look a bit clunky, the look of this game hasn't aged a bit. Mind you, I did prefer the background art in Double Impact, the previous versions of SFIII.

Behold! Double Impact's beautiful backgrounds.

But all of that would be pointless if the game was not fun to play. 3rd Strike is definitely one of the more challenging to master games in the series, with the parry system that I have still never been able to get down consistently, but even as a complete 'scrub' that mostly just mashes buttons and wiggles the stick about I still have a great time with this game. The characters all have a really nice solid feel to how they move, I particularly enjoy messing about as Q with his meaty punches and chopping off opponents' heads with Chun-Li.

Speaking of the characters that's another thing I really like about this one: it's not the same old SFII cast all over again but a pretty bizarre assortment of misfits including an opera singing goblin thing, a shape shifting monster and a scraggly old git wearing a bin bag. This game always felt like a bit of an underdog with Capcom really going all out to try some new weird ideas, especially when you consider they were originally planning to not even have Ryu and Ken it it, which wouldn't have bothered me as I never play them much anyway.

Twelve and Oro, two of the stranger characters in SFIII.

The1Ross - Gunspike (Cannon Spike)
As the newest member of the Junkyard team, I place fairly low on the picking order which means that my favourite games (SFIII 3rd Strike and CvS2) were already taken by the time it got to my turn, so for the sake of giving you readers a wee bit of variety, I’ve chosen to go with the unlikely Gunspike (aka Cannon Spike in the west).

Gunspike, while published by Capcom, was actually developed by Psyikyo and bears more than a passing resemblance to their other Naomi-->Dreamcast shmup offering, Zero Gunner 2. The two games share similar mechanics to the twin-stick shooters that flooded the previous gen of consoles…only without the twin sticks if that makes any sense, arena shooters as some people call them.

Cannon Spike, possibly my favourite DC shmup.

Both include some of Psikyo’s trademark features, namely a second loop or the hard version of the game upon completion of the final stage, and the early set of levels appearing randomly with scaled difficulty. Graphically the games look very similar, as they appear to share the same engine, as such many of the the mechanical enemies could be shoved straight into either game without looking out of place. The biggest difference between the two comes in the form of Cannon Spike's melee attacks; landing close range strikes will do huge amounts of damage to enemies but of course leave you open to avoid enemy fire. A nice little touch that forces players to calculate the risk and reward aspect of moving in close for a kill.

I was able to get to stage 8 on one credit arcade difficulty, so 1cc-ing the game is doable.

While certainly a good game, Gunspike is not quite up to the quality of the Dreamcast's best shmup offerings, The aforementioned Zero Gunner 2 is by far the superior game, but I'd still recommend this one if you can pick it up cheap or find "other means" to give it a shot.

So what does this have to do with Street Fighter? Well, two of the selectable characters are straight out of the Street Fighter universe; Cammy and Charlie (aka Nash in Japan). Both characters fit well with the game's setting and atmosphere (once you get over them wearing roller blades that is. Yes, roller blades!) and the in game melee attacks are even taken straight from their famous Street Fighter move sets, the name of the game in the west was even renamed after one of Cammy's signature moves that features in the game, "Cannon Spike".

Other notable characters include Arthur from Ghosts and Goblins fame and Megaman.

The Results of the DCJY FB Group Poll

Complete list of Dreamcast Street Fighter Games

Super Street Fighter IIX for Matching Service (CPS2)
Street Fighter III Double Impact (CPS3)
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike (CPS3)
Street Fighter Alpha 3/ Street Fighter Zero 3 (Naomi - Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper)
Street Fighter Zero 3 for Matching Service (Naomi - Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper)
Marvel vs Capcom (CPS2)
Marvel s Capcom 2 (Naomi)
Capcom vs SNK Millenium Fight 2000 (Naomi)
Capcom vs SNK Millenium Fighter 2000 Pro (Naomi)
Capcom vs SNK 2  (Naomi)
Cannnon Spike/ Gun Spike  (Naomi - features Cammy as a playable character)
Taisen Net Gimmick: Capcom vs Psikyo Allstars (Mahjong game feauturing characters, among others, from the Street Fighter Universe)
Tech Romancer/ Chokou Senki Kikaiou (Capcom Sony ZN-2 Hardware - Shizuka bares more than a passive resemblance to Karin Kanzuki)

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Guest Article: The Great Serial Connector Hunt

February 27, 2016, 8:34 am

≫ Next: Dreamcast Magazine Issue 10

≪ Previous: Five Dreamcast Games Better Than Street Fighter V

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Luke Benstead is a man on a mission - and that mission is to get the world's Dreamcasts back online without the need for a broadband adapter through his DreamPi project. We've covered DreamPi here at the 'Yard a few times and even had Luke on the DreamPod to talk with him about his masterplan. Luke isn't just interested in the online aspects of the Dreamcast though,  as he's now embarked on a side quest to create new system link and coders' cables. It's a grand vision and will hopefully end the drought and inflated prices that these items command. There's just one tiny stumbling block...

The Dreamcast is a highly extensible system shipping with more ports and connectors than most consoles. This extendability shows itself in the sheer number of unusual peripherals that are available or were announced. Everything from Zip drives to console link cables, from maracas to karaoke units were released or under development at some point; and since the demise of the console these extra connector ports have allowed modders to create peripherals such as Dreamcast-compatible hard drives and SD card readers.

There is one particular port that is special. Hidden at the back of the console just alongside the video output there is a port labelled 'Serial.' You’ll probably find that it’s the one port that you don’t have any use for; the single one that remains unconnected during your daily gaming sessions. This port however can connect to at least four devices or cables:

• SD Card Reader - allowing loading games and files using DreamShell
• Coder’s Cable - allowing homebrew developers to debug and test their inventions
• Console Link Cable - allowing head-to-head gaming with a (very) limited number of games
• The Neo Geo link cable

We as a community have a bit of a problem though, as although SD Card readers can be found readily online, coders' cables and system link cables are near impossible to come across. If you have the know-how you can build your own, but there is one missing piece to the puzzle: the serial connector itself.

The Dreamcast (like most consoles of the era) didn’t use any kind of standard socket - the serial socket is entirely custom, so although you can buy all the electrical components to build a coders' cable (for example) you can’t actually find the connector itself. Not unless you find a Neo Geo link cable and cut the plug from it, which is something I'm sure nobody would want to do.

This is where I need your help. Although proper serial connectors don’t exist to purchase online, there definitely exist some compatible connectors somewhere. I know they exist, because the people building SD card adapters have found them and use them to adapt off the shelf SD card readers into Dreamcast compatible ones. Here’s a picture of what I'm looking for:

I’ve searched everywhere, from Farnell to RS, from AliExpress to eBay and I can’t find anything that looks like it would be compatible with this socket. 

So I’m pleading with you, the DCJY community to help me search. Help me find the missing serial connector, so I can create coders' cables and system link cables and open the door for more indie developers...and people who just want to play Ferrari F355 with two TVs!

Luke Benstead

You can contact Luke through his blog Kazade's Internet Address, or you can find him lurking menacingly on Twitter.

Update
It seems the mystery has been solved! Friend of the Junkyard and YouTuber Pcwzrd13 pointed us to this thread on Russian Dreamcast forum DC-Swat, where it appears users have been hacking up AGP sockets from old motherboards to harvest the parts required for the serial connectors. Thanks to Pcwzrd13, we may all be able to acquire these coveted cables in the near future!

Dreamcast Magazine Issue 10

February 29, 2016, 7:19 am

≫ Next: A Quick Look At Exhibition Of Speed

≪ Previous: Guest Article: The Great Serial Connector Hunt

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Released on 20th June 2000, Dreamcast Magazine issue 10 was the biggest edition so far and weighed in at 130 pages of Dreamcast-related goodness. Another edition stuffed full of previews and reviews, this issue is also a goldmine of information on unreleased software and hardware; and the cover hints at a free music CD.

There are previews of Independence War 2, Star Wars Super Bombad Racing, Colin McRae 2.0, The Road to El Dorado, Roswell Conspiracies, Castlevania Resurrection and Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 2. There's also a brief look at the Bleem! for Dreamcast controller adapter and a news snippet about a possible port of Metal Gear Solid 2. Other features include a look at the various Sega Parks dotted throughout the UK and a fairly huge Samba De Amigo review.

Click the little camera icon on the gallery above to toggle full screen versions of the images. 

The main reviews section rates the following titles: Chu Chu Rocket!, Silver, Tony Hawk's Skateboarding, Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, Dragons Blood, Roadsters, Midway Greatest Hits Volume 1 and Gauntlet Legends. The import reviews are Power Stone 2, Typing of the Dead, Twinkle Star Spirits, Densha De Go! 2, Gundam Side Story 0079 and Sorcerian: Apprentice of Seven Star Magic. Here's the video:

A Quick Look At Exhibition Of Speed

March 1, 2016, 3:44 am

≫ Next: Sega Hard Girls Premium Figure Unboxing Video

≪ Previous: Dreamcast Magazine Issue 10

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The Dreamcast does have some great racing games and we've been over them many times here at the Junkyard. Metropolis Street Racer, Le Mans 24hrs, Ferrari F355 Challenge, Rush 2049...I could go on. However, as with all consoles there are some absolute stinkers and Exhibition of Speed is a race leader in those stakes. But before I get into the nitty gritty of why this is such a torrid affair, let's have a little look at EOS's history. Developed by Player 1 and published by Titus in 2001, EOS is a PAL exclusive arcade racer and the spiritual successor to Roadsters. What's interesting here is that EOS builds on the derided Dreamcast port of Roasters rather than the (quite decent) Nintendo 64 version, and as such feels every bit as cheap and half-arsed.

Doesn't look too bad in stills.

The game employs the standard features you'd expect in game of this type. You are presented with a Trophy mode which serves as the main championship, a quick race and time attack options and also a four player split-screen option. The Trophy mode takes cues from other titles in this genre in that you choose a driver, then a vehicle and then race in three different leagues. You start in the bottom division and work your way up by winning races and upgrading your vehicle; and each division's circuits have a new gimmick to differentiate them from the previous. This sounds quite cool, until you realise that you can literally play every track and use every car in the game just by selecting quick race. There's no point playing through the championship...because everything is already available from the start!

That's a big ass.

The back of the box claims that EOS has 15 different tracks, but this isn't really true - it has 5 tracks, each with three variants (one for each tier of the championship mode). So track X will have an 'easy,' a 'hard' and a 'speedrun' variant. The hard versions are practically the same as the easy ones, but with some kind of hazard thrown in (fog, wind or a natural disaster like a forest fire); while the speedrun tracks are the same as the easy ones...but with speed pads randomly painted onto the asphalt (or mud, in some cases) that claim to offer a boost if you drive over them...but actually do very little. It's all standard stuff. The thing that makes EOS such a chore to play is that everything about the game engine screams bargain basement.

The frame rate has a mind of its own, regularly speeding up and slowing down seemingly at random (which especially jarring when it happens as you approach a turn) and it's especially bad if you happen to be racing on one of the fog-laden tracks. Which is quite odd considering there's less of the track to render if everything's obscured in a real pea-souper, but very little in EOS actually makes any sense so it's par for the course I suppose. The frame rate isn't the only thing you'll find yourself wrestling against though, as both the opponent AI and vehicle controls appear to be working in cahoots to run you off the track at any given opportunity. As soon as the lights go green, AI vehicles will be smashing into you and running you off the road - but that's not because they're especially cunning and programmed like that...it's because they have the most rudimentary instructions to just follow the path of the circuit at maximum speed.

The frame rate is worse when it's foggy or dark.

Invariably they all speed off into the distance bashing into each other as they go, but as you make your way around the course you'll come across them in bunches crashed into a corner and unable to get out because they haven't been programmed to use the reverse function. It's pretty hilarious to be honest, but you won't laugh if you're playing EOS. Nay, you won't even break a smile - the horrendous vehicle controls will put paid to any hint of enjoyment to be gleaned from the behaviour of the thick-as-pigshit AI. Trying to turn is an exercise in futility and you will spend most of the time bouncing between walls and barriers, and using the brakes will cause your vehicle to enter into an uncontrollable skid (while the game slows to 5 frames per second) and you end up facing the wrong way. It's cool though - the rest of the pack will be stuck in a wall up ahead so victory is assured.

Click the camera icon to toggle full screen images

The badness isn't just restricted to the actual gameplay either. The graphics are basic and the vehicle models are ugly as sin, and the track designs can at best be described as 'alright.' All of the staples of the arcade racer are here - city, countryside, mountain, coastline and, erm, train yard...but they all look bland as hell and the headlight effects used on the night stages are pathetic. Background music is cringeworthy and engine sounds unremarkable, although special mention must also go to the overly enthusiastic announcer (who even announces the options menu). I guess it's good that at least someone is enjoying themselves, eh?!

Most of the PAL exclusives on the Dreamcast are actually quite good and a loss to the other territories' libraries. Headhunter, Stunt GP and Evil Twin are all decent games and would undoubtedly have sold well in the US (maybe not so Japan), but those gamers outside of the PAL regions really dodged a bullet when Titus decided not to publish this dross worldwide. One other odd thing I noticed is this fairly stereotypical image of a French character in EOS, complete with beret and Eiffel Tower:

Of course his name's Pierre!

I find this odd because Titus was a French company. That said, it was also the outfit responsible for the truly lamentable Superman game on the Nintendo 64, so the fact that Exhibition of Speed is such a laughable excuse for a racing game is a moot point. If you'd like an exhibition of how not to make a racing game, then by all means give this a go. If you'd like an arcade racer with a decent frame rate, cars that steer and (this is important) a fun experience, look elsewhere for your kicks.

Sega Hard Girls Premium Figure Unboxing Video

March 2, 2016, 6:25 am

≫ Next: Some Dreamcast Items From Video Game Market 3

≪ Previous: A Quick Look At Exhibition Of Speed

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A new piece of official Dreamcast merchandise in the year 2016? Impossible! Well, no actually. This is the official Sega Hard Girls Premium Dreamcast Figure exclusive to Japan.

Guard that Dreamcast collection with your life, my precious...

In short, the Sega Hard Girls franchise stars cute big eyed anime girls each based on a classic Sega console. It already has an anime and manga series, novels, PS Vita game, figures and all sorts of other merchandise under its name.

We'll go into more detail on the franchise in the future I'm sure, but you can check out fellow Junkyard members Gagaman and DocEggfan's previous articles on the franchise right now (here and here).

"Sega Hard Girls Premium Figure Dreamcast"

I bought mine from a guy who won one in those UFO catchers here in Japan, but if you're interested in getting one for yourself, you can pick these up from eBay among other places.

Click above for an unboxing video.

Check out our unboxing video above or just scroll down for more images of this beauty. along with her Sega Saturn sister figure (yes, yes, calm down anime otaku. I know, they're not actually sisters in any of the storylines! Just an expression...geeze).

Quite a well sculpted figure considering the relatively low price tag.

Obligatory booty shot.

Obligatory close up booty shot.

Mr Yukawa is clearly chuffed to bits with his new shelf buddy... can't blame him.

United with the 'Sega Hard Girls Premium Figure Saturn Figure.'

No description necessary.

Step away from the games Tom! We don't want this to get ugly!

Some Dreamcast Items From Video Game Market 3

March 6, 2016, 11:26 am

≫ Next: A Quick Look At James & Watch: Tooth Cracker

≪ Previous: Sega Hard Girls Premium Figure Unboxing Video

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This last weekend (Saturday 5th March 2016) saw the third annual RetroCollectVideo Game Market, where traders and online retailers converged at Yorkshire's Doncaster Dome to sell merchandise, consoles and games at reasonable prices to thrifty retro gamers. That was the theory anyway - some traders were clearly not singing from the same hymn sheet, asking stupid money for old consoles that were so yellowed they could be mistaken for blocks of cheddar. On the whole though, it was a fantastic event and the sheer number of people in attendance was mind blowing.

Thousands of people looking for yellowing Dreamcasts...

I was amongst that number representing the Junkyard, and it was great to meet so many people who visit this hallowed blog and listen to our podcast - in fact I was a little taken aback by how many attendees knew of the Junkyard and asked about articles they had read here, so if you were one of them - thank you. As it was primarily a market, I was able to leave my little corner of the venue and venture into the fray briefly and I'm glad I did because I managed to acquire some quite lovely Dreamcast-related stuff at Video Game Market 3. Here for you delectation is a run down of the swag I got my hands on...

What a fool.

James & Watch: Tooth Cracker
If you're up to speed with the new releases on the Dreamcast you'll no doubt be aware of 2015's Game & Watch-inspired James & Watch: Arm. It's an indie game developed by Dave Lancaster from the ever-popular Retrogaming Roundup podcast, which we reviewed here at the 'Yard.

Tooth Cracker is a sequel of sorts and once again utilises the Game & Watch aesthetic but offers a totally new (yet inspired by real life events!) experience. I won't say too much now as I will be reviewing the game here very soon, but massive thanks to Dave for seeking me out to furnish me with this very special, one of a kind 'Dreamcast Junkyard Edition' of Tooth Cracker.

Dreamcast Magazines
If you're a regular visitor to the 'Yard you'll have probably seen my recent series looking at Paragon Publishing's Dreamcast Magazine (I'm currently up to issue 10 so if you haven't, scroll back through the posts and you'll find them). There were a few issues in the run of that particular magazine I was missing, so I visited a stand run by SegaMags - a website dedicated solely to the championing and documenting of Sega magazines from the UK.

On SegaMags' stall I happened to find issue 34 of Dreamcast Magazine which happened to be one of the ones I was missing (and also the final edition); and also a few others that looked very interesting - issue 1 of US magazine DCM, issue 10 of Official US Dreamcast Magazine (complete with cardboard backing and demo disc), and issue 1 of the UK's Dreamcast Monthly.

Alongside these, I picked up the August 1998 issue of Sega Saturn Magazine (above) as it contains quite a bit of info on the Dreamcast reveal, tech demos like Tower of Babel and an interview with Yu Suzuki.

Total Control Magazines
As well as the Dreamcast magazines mentioned above, I also managed to acquire the complete collection of Total Control magazine, a short lived multi-format mag from the UK. While this may not sound that relevant, Total Control was a publication that ran from November 1998 to September 1999 and as such almost every issue features a ton of Dreamcast stuff. I recently posted scans of issue 1's Dreamcast reveal here at the 'Yard, and pretty much every one of the 11 issues of this fantastic magazine is stuffed full of Dreamcast-related previews, reviews and long forgotten news snippets (many featuring items that vanished into the ether not long after being showcased - more soon).

Total Control was produced by a publisher called Rapide Publishing, and the untimely demise of this company is fascinating for a major Dreamcast-related reason that will be revealed very soon here at the Junkyard. Massive thanks to Matt and his team for this collection, as they spent the best part of half an hour in the cold and dark trying to retrieve them from the inner recesses of their van after already packing the magazines away!

If you'd like to know more about SegaMags and Matt's quest to collect every single issue of every UK Sega-related magazine ever produced, please feel free to visit his site here.

Mr Yukawa's Treasure Hunt Promo Stand
Mr Yukawa was the managing director of Sega during the Dreamcast era and he became something of a celebrity due to the series of TV commercials he appeared in. Due to this new found fame, Sega saw fit to not only produce a console box with his mug festooned on it, but they also gave him a cameo in Shenmue and his own game.

Mr Yukawa's Treasure Hunt (aka 湯川元専務のお宝さがし) is a fairly rudimentary puzzle game in which you control the titular company executive and must dig up VMUs and other bits of Dreamcast paraphernalia. It was only released in Japan naturally, but this nice piece of promotional merchandise is something I had never seen before. Not until Nathan from Every Bit Gaming brought it over to me anyway. It's a really cool and unusual item and I have to give my thanks to him, and also for the next item too...

Giant Gram 2 Promo Poster
Another piece from Nathan at Every Bit Gaming, this Giant Gram 2 promotional poster is something I'd never seen before and it looks like it was used in games stores in Japan.

The poster is double sided and while one side really just shows art from the game, the other gives details of Dreamcast/NAOMI connectivity via a VMU and a VMU mini game that comes as part of the main game. I can't make head nor tail of the text on the poster, but this is a really cool and unusual item.

Lego Dreamcast

Sonic the Comic Online is the internet-based continuation the printed media version of Sonic the Comic. You probably didn't need me to spell that out for you, but there it is. I used to buy STC on occasion during my formative years, and this weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Stephenson, the editor-in-chief of Sonic the Comic Online. The reason I tell you this, is that Michael isn't just a talented illustrator - he also makes awesome things like this Lego Dreamcast:

The level of detail is brilliant - the GD door opens up to reveal a tiny lens and the bottom of the model even mimics the yellow warning sticker found on most systems. Obviously, this is a stylised rendition of a Dreamcast, but it's a very cool little item with lots of neat details and certainly an unusual piece to have in the collection. If you'd to contact Michael to enquire about getting one of these yourself, check out his Facebook page here.

Dreamcast Gun T-Shirt
How cool and unusual is this? I got this Dreamcast Gun shirt from the guys at Badnik Bazaar, an online retailer specialising in all things Sonic and Sega. The simplicity of the design is what drew me to it, and it only cost £10 - a bargain however you look at it.

Gun added in case you didn't know what one looked like. Um.

Other Stuff
The Video Game Market wasn't just about buying stuff - it was also a great opportunity to meet up with lots of familiar faces from the UK's huge and vibrant gaming scene. As many of us live in all corners of the UK, these types of events are generally the only times we get to see each other in person, and so it was great meeting up with all the other guys from RetroCollect, Lewis from Sega Driven, Ally the Retro Hunter, the Maximum Power Up podcast guys, Aaron the Angry Amiga Nerd, Lee from Sore Thumbs, Rick from Warp Zone, YouTuber Tooty UK...and everyone else who came to say hello and chat about the Dreamcast and DCJY.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Sonic the Hedgehog 2 artist Duncan Gutteridge and Super Play / N64 Magazine / Rare artist Wil Overton. All in all, it was a great day and hopefully the next one will be every bit as good.

A Quick Look At James & Watch: Tooth Cracker

March 7, 2016, 12:39 pm

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In 2015, RetroGaming Roundup's Ben Lancaster released a new homebrew game for the Dreamcast modelled after the popular Nintendo Game & Watch LCD units of the 1980s. James & Watch: Arm was a fairly simple game that tasked players with throwing and catching a small child, and was inspired by true events that involved some bored brothers, a broken arm and a little bit of sibling bribery. If that sounds even remotely intriguing, you should have a look at our previous feature and all will be made clear.

Fast forward to 2016 and Ben has been back to the drawing (developing?) board and come up with the second entrant in the James & Watch saga, the brilliantly titled Tooth Cracker. As with the first in the series, Tooth Cracker is inspired by true events but rather than being based on brotherly 'love,' it is based on the wince inducing tale of a few beverages of the alcoholic persuasion, an errant elbow and the resulting smashed incisors.

As the name suggests, Tooth Cracker is once again based on the Nintendo Game & Watch and so features some fairly rudimentary graphics and sound effects. This shouldn't put you off though, as what worked in the 1980s still holds true today in this age of HD graphics and complex narratives - addictive gameplay and high scores are what made the Game & Watch a winner, and Tooth Cracker nails the formula with aplomb.

Before I continue, I really want to emphasise that Tooth Cracker (and indeed the earlier Arm) is the work of a small team of hobbyists who are creating software for the Dreamcast in their spare time. More importantly, they are doing so mainly for their own amusement and the subject matter for these games is testament to that. If you approach either of the James & Watch games expecting anything more than a very simple, 15 minute diversion of an experience then you will be left disappointed. That said, these games never try to be anything more than that and so any negativity levelled at either of these titles is (in my opinion at least) unwarranted. Now that's out of the way - on to the game itself.

After being treated to some genuinely humorous intro soundbites and a brilliant intro screen sending up the Boddingtons brand (for those who don't know, Boddingtons is a popular British ale originally brewed in the Strangeways district of Manchester, and was known as the 'Cream of Manchester' before the brewery closed and production moved elsewhere). The knowingly titled Doggingtons takes the place of Boddies and it is with these familiar yellow-hued cans of beer that the player must attempt to score points by cracking teeth.

Gameplay is simple in the extreme - the cans move randomly along the line of teeth at the top of the screen, and when the moving fist below the can lines up you need to hit the action button. Line them up perfectly and you crack a tooth; miss and you lose a life. Each tooth takes three accurate hits with the can of Doggingtons' finest before shattering and if you get all of the teeth smashed you'll receive an extra life. As you get better at hitting the A button as the fist and the can line up, you'll be knocking teeth out for fun; but be aware that the game tempo speeds up as you progress meaning you're in for some pretty frantic reaction-based gameplay. There are two games modes (titled A and B), and the second mode introduces rotten black teeth that only require one direct hit to reduce them to putrid piles of black dust. Which is lovely.

To be honest, there's not much else to Tooth Cracker than lining up the fist and the cans and hitting the action button at the right time, but for pure novelty value it can't be faulted. It perfectly recreates the simplistic nature of the Game & Watch and harks to an era where the only draw a game needed was the lure of beating a high score. Not only that, but it really does test your reactions as you progress and when you're down to your last life it makes for a pretty nerve-wracking experience.

Tooth Cracker isn't yet available to purchase, and this copy is a special promo version made especially for The Dreamcast Junkyard (way to make us feel special!), but Ben has informed us that the game will be available at some point in the near future and may possibly form part of a double pack bundled with James & Watch: Arm. The fun back story (well, fun for those not having their teeth cracked), VGA support, engaging twitch-based gameplay and wry sense of humour come together to make Tooth Cracker a worthy addition to the Dreamcast's already bursting library of homebrew releases and just goes to show that even the most simplistic of ideas has a fun game premise to be gleaned from it. 

For more information on the release of James & Watch: Tooth Cracker, keep an eye on the RetroGaming Roundup page dedicated to the game; and thanks to Ben Lancaster for the special promotional copy of the game. Follow Ben on Twitter here and RetroGaming Roundup here for regular updates on Tooth Cracker's release.

New VMU Games On The Horizon?

March 8, 2016, 12:46 pm

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Ah, Instagram. A social network I have very limited experience with...because I simply don't get it. Yes I'm a Luddite, a moron even. But I'm OK with that. To be honest, I've been called much worse for having a bizarre fascination with a certain archaic games console. Cough. But back to Instagram. I've actually had an account for a while but I've never uploaded anything to it because I literally have nothing interesting to post there.

Nobody wants to see pictures of my Pot Noodles and empty beer cans stained with tears. That said, I'm glad I signed up to it all those years ago though as it allowed me to discover (well, be shown by Cauterize of RetroCollect fame) the fascinating work of user guacasaurus_mex. I see what you did there with the name, Mr Mex. Very clever. But not as clever as the VMU-based creations on your Instagram page!

Behold - a Star Wars: The Force Awakens mini game for your trusty old VMU:

What about a Deadpool game? You asked for it:

A Magic 8 Ball predictor? Hell...why not!

A video posted by guacasaurus_mex (@guacasaurus_mex) on Dec 18, 2015 at 11:24pm PST

There's a whole raft of other creations hiding on guacasaurus_mex's profile page and while some of them are merely proof of concept demos, others are pretty much fully fledged games. There's no information on if or how these games and demos will be released for public consumption just yet (although a 25 game compilation for use with Dreamshell has been mentioned), but I'll be keeping an eye on developments. I'm already predicting a drought of CR2032 batteries across the globe as soon as these hit a download service.

Thanks to guacasaurus_mex for permission to post these images here (make sure you go and follow him if you're an Instagram user, and tell him where you saw his work!), and thanks to Cauterize from RetroCollect for the heads up on this brilliant project.

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The Sega Driving Simulator – Expanding the Dreamcast Collection Special

March 10, 2016, 1:16 am

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Originally intended to be featured in my soon to be completed 'Expanding the Dreamcast Collection – Part 3' article, it was decided (by me!) that this game/simulator deserved a little more attention and so has evolved into its own, albeit short, article. Take a read if such things as boring simulators interest you…or don’t as the case may be.

Did you know, that in 2002, while the English were still living in mud huts and throwing faeces into each other’s faces, on the other side of the globe, whacky big eyed constantly bowing super advanced cat-girl people (aka the Japanese) had already perfected the art of driving simulator creation? Yes, it’s true, and the creator of said super advanced simulator wasn’t Skynet, but in fact Sega! What’s more it ran on Dreamcast 2 hardware!

OK, so it wasn’t technically running on a Dreamcast 2, it ran on the Naomi 2 arcade hardware. The Naomi 2 was of course the sequel to the original Naomi which itself was basically just an arcade version of the Dreamcast, so with a bit of imagination it doesn’t take much of a leap to get from Naomi 2 to Dreamcast 2. (The rest of the above is all true and historically accurate by the way, a Facebook meme once told me so...probably).

The game in question was developed as a joint project between the Japanese government, Japanese driving schools and Sega, and completed development in 2002/3 making it one of the last games to be developed for the Naomi 2. Only, it’s not really a game at all, it’s a super realistic driving simulator… a Sega Driving Simulator! Unlike the other games featured in the 'Expanding the Dreamcast Collection' series, it wasn’t sold to arcades but instead marketed to driving schools around Japan.

The number of features and attention to detail on this cab are really quite astonishing.

The simulator ran inside an incredibly advanced custom cabinet featuring three 29" monitors, a seat belt, handbrake, pedals, gear stick, realistic speedometer and even keys to start the engine. The race wheel’s force feedback was particularly noteworthy at the time, for being capable of realistically simulating a plethora of driving situations, such as ABS and skidding, to a level that had never been seen before. Even a camera was featured as part of the set up to monitor such things as whether the user was appropriately moving their head left and right to check for traffic and other potential hazards.

I find the on screen wing mirrors particularly satisfying to look at.

According to the official webpage, the simulator included software for four different kinds of Japanese driving license, each with four to five lessons as well as the option to simulate various weather and times of day:

1st Grade Driving License

        Hazard Perception

        High Speed

        Emergency Stop

        Regional Characteristics

1st Grade Driving License for Medium Vehicles/ 1st Grade Driving License for Large Vehicles

        Hazard Perception

        Emergency Stop

Night Driving

Hazardous Conditions

2nd Grade Driving License for Large Vehicles

        Hazard Perception

        Emergency Stop

Driving in Hazardous Conditions

Night Driving

The Dangers of Speeding

A selection of small clips from these lessons can still be viewed on the official page as seen above and I recommend taking a look at them (right after you’ve finished reading of course!).

1. Course Map 2. Real time video of student 3. Record of user’s speed, acceleration, braking etc in real time. 4. Gravity Data Graph.

Up to three simulators could be connected simultaneously to one PC for the purpose of monitoring student performance. During use of the simulator, detailed data and statistics of the lesson would be recorded in real time on said PC. 

An example of some of one of the print-outs.

Finally, replays of the lesson from various angles could be viewed and a printout summarizing the lesson and user's performance would be taken away by students to reflect upon, evaluate and see which aspects of their driving could be improved upon.

Think you’ve got a complete Dreamcast collection? Have you got one of the Brave Firefighter Kyoto Disaster Prevention Centre cabinets, or one of these?!?! Well! Have you? No! So and sit down and shut up.

Legacy

The story of the Sega Driving Simulator doesn’t end here though, because ten years later in 2013, Sega released a follow up to their groundbreaking simulator named the SLDS-3G, the Sega Logistics Service Driving Simulator – 3G. Where the 3G comes from, I’m not sure because by all accounts, this is the second installment, not third, in the series. If you know any better, I invite you to chime in below in the comments section below.

What will come next in the evolution of the exciting driving simulator market? Only time will tell.

Official PDF

Official Webpage

Dreamcast Magazine Issue 11

March 10, 2016, 10:30 pm

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Dreamcast Magazine issue number 11 frolicked off the press and onto the shelf of your local Newsagents on the 13th July 2000. Not a particularly memorable day for many, but according to a quick Google search, 13th July 2000 was also the day that Fijian rebels released 18 hostages including the former Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry after eight weeks holed up in the island's parliament building.

Issue 11 is an absolute beast when it comes to unreleased games though (see what I did there?). Colin McRae Rally 2.0 grabs the cover and receives a lengthy preview of the rally game that never was (unless you've been privileged enough to play it), and the rest of the Forecast section contains a ton of other stuff you've probably never heard of before.

There are previews of Sanity: Aiken's Artifact, Planet of the Apes, Game Room, Dark Angel: Vampire Apocalypse, Buffy, Gorka Morka, Fortris, Legend of the Blade Masters, World's Scariest Police Chases, Tropico, Heavy Metal FAKK 2, Max Payne, and part one of the Black & White development diary. Click on the camera icon in the bottom left of the gallery below and click 'direct image link' for bigger versions of the images.

Elsewhere there are reviews of Marvel Vs Capcom 2, NHL 2K2, Super Runabout, South Park Rally, Bust-A-Move 4, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. Here's the video:

DreamPod - Episode 28

March 13, 2016, 8:28 am

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≪ Previous: Dreamcast Magazine Issue 11

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iTunes
Stitcher
Buzzsprout
UK Podcast Directory

Music in this episode comes from Shenmue (Tomato Convenience Store), Ikaruga and The Jerry Springer Show. No, really. Thanks to Sean 'NZ17' Robinson for the heads up on ScummVM version 1.8 (go here for more information) and the shooter Tom is referring to is Noiz2sa. Released in 2002 for various systems, Noiz2sa is a freeware shooter that was converted to Dreamcast by Chui of Retro Sumus. The SD reader version is availible to download for free here (thanks to DC Eric for the link).

If you like (or dislike) what you hear, it would mean the world to us if you'd leave us a review on iTunes. Cheers all!

A Quick Look At Stupid Invaders

March 14, 2016, 1:59 pm

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≪ Previous: DreamPod - Episode 28

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While it is true that the Dreamcast's library is heavily weighted towards arcade conversions and quick fix experiences, the system does play host to a fairly large number of PC ports across a range of genres. Star Lancer, Railroad Tycoon 2 and The Nomad Soul are all games that have their roots on the PC and all made the jump to the Dreamcast effortlessly, but there is one genre that's oddly under represented: the point and click adventure.

Sure, ScummVM (now at version 1.8) allows you to play a whole wheelbarrow full of old PC adventure titles - many of which are amongst the best games ever created - but when it comes to official releases, they're somewhat thin on the ground. This is particularly odd when you consider just how similar the Dreamcast is in terms of hardware to a mid-range PC from the late 2000s (and it has the added bonus of the Windows CE compatibility), and even more so when you glance at the keyboard and mouse peripherals gathering dust on your shelf/down the back of the sofa. The Dreamcast looks, for all intents and purposes like a console that should be literally bursting with point and click adventure games, but in the PAL territories at least there is only one such officially released title filling that role: Stupid Invaders.

In recent times we have been treated to indie adventures Elansar and Philia, but if you discount those and the aforementioned ScummVM, the Dreamcast's collection of point and click games starts and ends with Ubisoft's title. Based on a French cartoon series called Space Goofs, Stupid Invaders tells the tale of a band of aliens who get lost while looking for somewhere to have a picnic and end up crash landing on Earth. In at attempt to remain undiscovered for fear of being experimented on, the five extra terrestrials hole up in an old house and attempt to lie low until they can repair their space ship. It all goes a bit wrong however, when local evil scientist Dr Sakarine learns of the aliens' existence and dispatches a bounty hunter called Bolok (pictured below) to track the 'invaders' down and bring them to the lab for a nice spot of dissection and anal probing. At this point, it has dawned on me that Stupid Invaders is the second game on the Dreamcast (after Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage) to feature a character named after male genitalia...but that's a subject for another day.

Throughout the game, you take control of the different aliens and must move through the house going from room to room collecting items and solving some fairly abstract puzzles, all the while avoiding Bolok and his instant death cut scenes. There's a nice bit of oddball humour thrown in to give Stupid Invaders a nice sense of familiarity - funny voice samples and left-field references are par for the course when it comes to these types of games. Furthermore, if you've ever played a point and click game in your life you'll pick the mechanics in Stupid Invaders up pretty quickly, but sometimes you'll find yourself completely stumped as to what you're meant to do next.

The first time I played Stupid Invaders was back in early 2001 and my access to sites like Game FAQs (or the internet in general, for that matter) was quite limited, and so I got stuck quite early on (it was a puzzle involving a firework) and I couldn't work out what I was meant to do, even after hours of just wandering from room to room clicking on every single thing I could see. Eventually I gave up and the game went to Gamestation with my Dreamcast on that fateful day when I foolishly traded the lot in for a PS2 and a copy of NHL 2001; but since then I have restarted the game and managed to get much further this time around. It's true that some of the later puzzles are still a bit confusing but now I have the wonders of broadband to help my stupidity overcome the trials and tribulations befalling the neon-coloured protagonists of Stupid Invaders. And believe me - after going round in circles for an hour, reaching for Google seems like the only option sometimes.

As far as point and click games go, Stupid Invaders is fairly standard stuff but it has the added bonus of looking absolutely great. Of course, the game is hardly taxing the Dreamcast as it is mostly made up of pre-rendered backgrounds, pre-rendered character models and pre-rendered movies, but it looks like a playable cartoon in every sense of the word and sounds just as good too. It didn't hurt that the original voice cast and animation studio responsible for the cartoon series was employed to work on Stupid Invaders, and it really shows. Other games can claim brilliant 3D models or stellar lighting effects, but it's hard to deny that Stupid Invaders looks pretty damn good when you take it as the sum of all it's pre-rendered parts.

An episode of Space Goofs for your viewing pleasure

In short, Stupid Invaders is a game that is rarely mentioned when the Dreamcast's hidden gems are discussed, but that's not entirely fair in my opinion. It looks great and plays as good as any other point and click game could hope to; and while it's not on a par with the likes of Full Throttle, Beneath A Steel Sky, Monkey Island, Discworld, Broken Sword et al it's still a great example of this genre done well.

An interesting footnote to this article is that the original Stupid Invaders website is still online and retains all of the functionality it had back when the game was contemporary. It features some great artwork and downloadable content (including a 2001 calendar, if you have any use for it) so go and have a look. Sadly, the Dreamcast links are all broken now (they only go to the European Dreamcast homepage anyway), but there's still some fun to be had reading character bios and watching tiny AVI movies.

Alice Dreams Tournament Gets Kickstarter Update

March 16, 2016, 2:52 am

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Alice Dreams Tournament smashed its Kickstarter goal last year, and this new Bomberman-inspired Dreamcast game from Alice Team looks like it's going to be a winner for anyone who misses the fun of local multiplayer sessions of old. Online gaming is great and all, but nothing beats being sat in the same room as your adversaries for a bit of friendly (or unfriendly, in the case of my Goldeneye 007 days) rivalry. The good news is that the project appears to be bang on target, and Alice Team have updated the game's Kickstarter page with the following announcements:

Time for some news!

• We're beta-testing the Scoring mode! We're testing some gameplay modifications to make the challenge more interesting. Note, this mode will use an original interaction on Dreamcast! 
• Some of the new maps are ready for crazy parties! (See an example below)
• We are still working on US, Jap and Euro covers. Please still be a little patient, we will soon be able to show you them!

One of the new stages

That's not all though. It seems those nice folk at Alice Team are helping out fellow indie developer Mode4 with their Steam Greenlight project Bombslinger. More hands make light work eh? Alice Dreams Tournament looks set to meet its June 2016 release date for backers and I for one can't wait to get my hands on it.

Check out our recent interview with Alice Team's lead developer Julien Desquenne here.

Source: Dreamcast News

A Look Inside The Junkyard

March 17, 2016, 1:43 pm

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We spend a large part of our time here at the Junkyard bringing all the Dreamers out there the latest news, opinions and articles on our beloved little white box. Whether it be long thought lost games, articles on every element of the Dreamcast that you'd ever wish to have (and some you probably didn't!), collectors guides, an award nominated podcast, interviews with the best DC indie developers out there; you name it, we try to cover it.

But when we're not letting our creative juices flow, the staff here at the 'Yard can often be found building up our own collections. We're a varying bunch, covering 4 continents, and our own collecting goals are somewhat different – whether it be feeding the compulsion to finish a full set, attempting to expand on the Dreamcast family with arcade hardware and software, or just enjoying the thrill of the hunt and finding 10 copies of Spirit of Speed 1937 in a charity shop; we all have different aims and ambitions with our Dreamcast indulgences. And whilst we talk about the console a lot, it's occurred to us that we haven't shared our own collections – at least not for a while. With new members now aboard the Junkyard train, it seems the right time to share our own little corners of Dreamcast heaven.

Oh, and we want to show off a little. There's nothing wrong with that, right?

So without further a do, The Dreamcast Junkyard presents...a look inside the Junkyard!

First up, the newest member of the Junkyard family, author of the superb 'Top 5 Dreamcast Games for Studying Japanese' amongst others, our Japan-based Junkyarder, Ross:

Junkyard member: 
Ross O'Reilly (The1Ross)

Junkyard Location:   
The UK but have spent the last six years living in Japan.

When did you first get a Dreamcast?
I got a DC on launch day so that would be October 14th 1999 in the UK.

How long have you been collecting?
I can't really put an exact date on it. While the DC was still being commercially supported, I picked up as many games as I could afford with the money earned from my part time job and even dipped into my school lunch money on the odd occasion.

Sega announcing the decision to drop support for the system was absolutely devastating for my fifteen year old self but it had some positive effects; everything Dreamcast became super cheap overnight and I was able to pick up almost any game I wanted. I also continued to import the odd new release from Japan, I remember having pre-orders for Radirgy, Under Defeat and a few others, but I think Trigger Heart Exelica must have been the last DC game I bought new on release.

By the time I graduated university, I had around 100 mostly PAL titles in my collection and to help fund my move to Japan I sold, not just the DC stuff, but my entire game collection save for a few bits and bobs. Unlike many others who have sold up, it was a choice that I've never really regretted to be honest.

For the first two years of living in Japan, the only consoles I owned were PS3 and Xbox 360. I honestly believed that I didn't need a game collection any more but I gradually slipped back into it when I bought a Dreamcast to play Shenmue in Japanese for the first time. Since then, it's got a bit out of control to be honest, but I always buy at well below eBay prices, so I figure that I can sell up again one day if I need to without having lost any/much money.

So to answer your question, about fifteen years with a two year break in there somewhere.

Tell us then, what do you have in your Junkyard?
My count of strictly Dreamcast games is currently at 336: 316 JPN, 11 PAL, 7 indie releases, 1 US and 1 repro of the unreleased Propeller Arena. The only doubles across regions that I own are Jet Set Radio for the extra stages not in the regular Japanese version and Seaman because the difference in language really makes it an almost entirely different game.

Ross's impressive games collection

My console setup is actually two JPN systems sat on top of each other; one for playing GDROMs, the other for running games from SD card with GDEmu. Depending on the game or my mood, I connect these up to my televisions in the following way.

Modern TV:
Dreamcast-->Toro-->male scart to male RGB21 cable-->XRGB Frameiester RGB cable-->XRGB Framemeister-->HDMI cable-->Modern TV
(to read more about the optimal way to connect your DC to a modern TV, check out my article here http://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2016/01/guest-article-future-proofing-your.html)

CRT:
Dreamcast-->Toro-->male scart to male RGB21 cable-->RGB21 female to male RGB Multi cable-->CRT TV

New Net City arcade candy cabinet monitor:
Dreamcast-->Toro-->VGA cable-->New Net City  

A little corner of Heaven...

As for peripherals, I think I have pretty much everything except the Ascii fight pad (doesn't interest me as I prefer to use arcade sticks) the Taisen LAN cable and the ParaPara Paradise controller, both of which I'd love to add to my collection but are unfortunately extremely rare and expensive. The strangest peripherals in my collection are the Densha de Gogo! train controller and Pop and Music controller.

As some of you have seen in my 'Expanding the Dreamcast Collection' series of articles, I like to think outside of the box when it comes to Dreamcast collecting. Firstly, the Dreamcast family arcade hardware and their respective games/ports and secondly Dreamcast games that were cancelled but found their way onto other systems such as Panzer Dragoon Orta on Xbox or Shinobi on PS2 also feature as part of my collection. In my eyes, these are just as much Dreamcast games as Sonic Adventure and Shenmue are (well, almost anyway).   

Here's a few examples of ports from the Dreamcast family of arcade  hardware and cancelled games that didn't make their way onto the Dreamcast

Finally, I like to pick up any games on other systems that I think of as Dreamcast franchises, stuff like Crazy Taxi 3 and Headhunter Redemption on Xbox or Jet Set Radio on the GBA, and any other games that feature Dreamcast characters; Sonic Pinball Party for it's inclusion of Amigo, Sonic and Allstars Racing Transformed, the Sega Superstars Eyetoy game, that sort of thing. 
  
What's the 'prized possession' of your DC collection?

My New Net City and New Astro City arcade candy cabinets. They're not particularly valuable here in Japan but the amount of enjoyment I've had with them is immeasurable. The New Net City cabinet was practically built to be used with the Naomi (arcade version of the Dreamcast), so I feel especially privileged to have that in my collection. I'd buy a couple more if it was up to me, but my girlfriend insists that two arcade cabinets is quite enough. What does she know, eh?

There's a whole world of DC-related collecting outside of the standard released games

Collecting for so long, and being based in Japan, you must have come across some great deals?
In Japan, we have these giant second hand shops called "kanteidan". They sell not just games, but also clothes, manga, DVDs, VHS, watches and a bit of everything to be honest, even skateboards. Once me and a friend turned up to one on a Sunday morning to find they were having some kind of clearance sale where all games were 50 yen each (about 32p or $0.44 at today's exchange rate). Neither of us had cars at the time so we just filled up a couple carrier bags and hauled back as much as we could on the bus. Looking back, I kind of regret not buying more...

I got everything you see in this picture for a grand total of 5800 (£37/$51). I doubt I'll ever see that bargain beaten to be honest.

£37? £37?! Makes my £3 slightly sun faded copy of FIFA 98 on the PS1 from a charity shop look like a bad deal now...

Which piece of your collection has set you back the most?
If we're talking strictly DC then it was probably one of the Japanese DC games I pre-ordered from Japan. More recently I spent a fair bit on my Naomi flashcard reader, Dimm board and Capcom I/O set up.

We've all got some strange, odd and quirky pieces in our collection, what's the oddest in yours?
A Seaman Fan.

Damn it Ross, I want one of these now...

Do you have any goals in mind with your collection?
It's not a collecting goal as I don't really have any, but I'd like to get my Japanese up to a level where I can finally play through Segagaga and understand the story. I tried it once a few years back and found it ridiculously hard; lots of text, tonnes of high level kanji and a fairly complicated story. I don't have trouble with most games, even RPGs, but I'm not ready for Segagaga...yet!

Finally, do you have that 'Holy Grail' in mind for your collection? That one piece of Dreamcast history you desire more than any other?
Without a doubt it has to be the Taisen link cable. The cable is used to connect two Dreamcasts for LAN play. As far as I know the feature was only implemented into five games (F355 Challenge, Virtual On, Sega Tetris Aero Dancing F and Aero Dancing i), but I really want to give it a go. I recently bid over $300 for one on a Japanese auction site, but was outbid at the last minute. That's how rare these things are!

I even have two Virtua Sticks, two Ascii flight sticks and intend to get another race wheel in preparation for the day I finally get my hands on one.  

Thanks to Ross for sharing his awesome collection!

Next we have Tom, creator of the Junkyard and prolific article writer for the blog, co-host and editor of the DreamPod, as well as contributing to pieces to a variety of other publications, sites and podcasts, and generally regarded as a bit of a Dreamcast expert. When he's not creating the Junkyard empire, Tom also has a fine collection of his own.

Junkyard member:
Hello, I’m Tom and I help with the podcast and occasionally write nonsense here. As well as the Junkyard, I write for RetroCollect, co-host the Maximum Power Up podcast and do occasional freelance work.

Junkyard Location:
Southampton UK, but originally from Manchester.

When did you first get a Dreamcast?
That would have been around November 1999, a few weeks after the UK launch. I had an N64 up until then and had saved a little bit of cash but couldn’t afford to outright buy a system (I was in college at the time). I had to wait until I could find a buyer for the N64 in order to fund my purchase, which I made from Electronics Boutique in Manchester city centre. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to get a new system - either before or since. I recall I actually bought a copy of Speed Devils about a fortnight before I had the Dreamcast and I would just sit looking at the back of the box and reading the manual haha! 

How long have you been collecting seriously for the Dreamcast?
Started the current collection in early 2005 when I bought a used Dreamcast in a branch of defunct games store Gamestation. That’s when I had the idea to start a blog detailing my collecting…and the rest is history!

What do you have in your Junkyard now?
About 95% complete PAL collection, around 25 NTSC-J and 25 NTSC-U games. 5 PAL systems, 2 NTSC-J ones, a ridiculous number of VMUs, controllers, guns, keyboards, mice etc.

A tidy Dreamcast collection, in both meanings of the word

I have quite a few bits of random paraphernalia and associated guff too - the mini collectible egg Dreamcast, a bead art Dreamcast, a tissue box holder, a Sega Europe Dreamcast jacket (that’s a bit too small, dammit!).

Some of Tom's more random (I say awesome) Dreamcast related pieces

I have a fairly large collection of magazines and books relating to the Dreamcast too, and recently had a number of Dreamcast Magazine issues donated to me by a reader (thanks Steve), hence the video walkthroughs I’ve been doing here at the Junkyard. I don’t just collect Dreamcast stuff though as I’m a fan of all systems, so I try to keep it sensible.

The Dreamcast's memory in print, an essential part of any Dreamers collection

Do you have any prized possessions in your Dreamcast collection?
One of my most prized possessions is something I must thank Ross for - the Virtual On twin sticks he sent over to me from Japan (thanks Ross!). The karaoke unit was something I’d been after for ages and I’d almost resigned to the fact I’d never own one…but then low and behold a fairly cheap one popped up on eBay and I won it for just over £30. It’s useless, but it looks cool. Scott (Doc Eggfan) recently sent me a NAOMI 2 system too, which was very cool of him. A special mention must also go to the Dreamconn wireless controller - it is simply superb and my ‘go to’ controller. Thanks again to Chris for that.

Beautiful Twin Sticks nestled in Tom's gaming heaven. Tom's Jaguar collection is an equally impressive lot

Any particular great deals down the years that stand out?
Probably the karaoke unit to be fair. They do go for a lot of money in such good condition, even though (as previously stated) they are literally useless nowadays. The new and sealed Dreameye was only £20 too so that was quite good. Back in the early days of my collecting (circa 2005), Dreamcast games were dirt cheap and I got stuff like Shenmue 2 and Evil Twin for a few pounds each, so I’ve had quite a few good deals. Special mention must go to Father Krishna for giving me a translucent green Dreamcast for nothing, and Facebook group member Vanda for the free stuff he’s sent me over the years.

Which are the most expensive additions to your collection?
I’ve never really spent a massive amount on any one Dreamcast item, simply because I’m eternally broke/refuse to pay silly money for stuff. I paid £70 for a mint condition Yukawa Edition Dreamcast last year, and around £50 for the Dreamcast Express demo collection…but apart from those I’ve never really spend an outrageous amount on anything.

Tom's NAOMI 2 makes a nice CD-i plinth

Any strange of quirky elements lurking in your Junkyard?
Not really strange, but my two Dreamcast keyrings often start conversations when people spot them (and know what the hell a Dreamcast is!). Oh, and the foam-filled Dreamcast my mother randomly made for me. Not sure what was going through her head there to be honest haha! I also have the weird Treamcast photo mouse but I’m not sure that counts as merchandise; and the Metropolis Street Racer poster I have hanging above the fireplace is quite unusual I guess.

What does the future hold for your collection - any goals in mind?
I’ve pretty much reached where I want to be as far as getting games goes. The final PAL games I don’t have are outside my price range and I’m happy just having CD-R versions to be honest (and they’re mostly shit anyway). I’m really keen to get DCJY at more live events in the future so my main goals at present are collecting any old PAL systems and cleaning them up for use at events.

A lone Dreamcast sits amongst some of gaming's greatest machines. And a Jaguar

And finally Tom, is there any one 'Holy Grail' that you'd just love to add to the collection?
Maybe a mint condition, fully working Divers 2000 if I could have anything and money was no object!

We can dream Tom - after all, that's the business we're all in! Thanks to Tom for sharing his collection.

Next up, DreamPod regular and prolific Junkyard article writer, Rob.

Junkyard member:
Robert Jones - In the real world I’m Features Editor on T3.com. I also wrote a book about video games, which can be seen here.

Junkyard Location:
Bath, UK

When did you first get a Dreamcast?
I got one a couple of months after it was released in the UK, however that one is now long gone. Today I have a modified unit with an internal VGA box that is also region free, as well as a complete-in-box, ‘heat-piped/liquid-cooled’ Japanese Dreamcast. It even has all the paperwork that it came with when brand new.

Rob's lovely Japanese Dreamcast in all it's glory

Region free, VGA modded Console

How long have you been collecting?
Since the system came out in the UK, however when it first launched I didn’t immediately decide I was going to collect for it, I just bought games that I liked. After Sega went boom and Dreamcast games plummeted in price, I then decided to pick up more, moving into Japanese exclusives.

What do you have in your Junkyard then Rob?

I consider myself a ‘head-hunter’ collector, which is primarily due to the fact that I collect on multiple fronts, with the Neo Geo AES, MVS and Pocket Color swallowing a lot of my money. As such, my Dreamcast collection is dwarfed by some of the other guys’ here on the site. Overall I’ve got about 40 games in total, however each one is something I genuinely like playing or holds some particular significance. There is no dross!

What's the most cherished part (or parts) of your DC collection?
Probably Lack of Love (L.O.L) and Shikigami no Shiro 2 Special Edition. I’ve written a piece about both on the site: Living with a Lack of Love  and Review – 式神の城 (Shikigamino Shiro 2)

and admire both of them immensely. Lack of Love is a beautiful, thought-provoking and unique experience, while Shikigami no Shiro 2 is a lesson in how to create a quality shmup. Neither are particularly rare, however they hang a lantern on the sort of unique, amazing experiences that can be found in the Japan-exclusive Dreamcast library. Oh, damn, I almost forgot Ikaruga too!

Two beautiful examples of the Dreamcast's magnificence

Any particular great deals you've managed to secure down the years?I don’t think I’ve ever got a real steal on the Dreamcast, however my copies of Shenmue 1 and 2 were bought back in the day for very little and, considering the insane but also revealing (not in that way!) experience I got out of Kita E - White Illumination. I consider that £5 well spent too!

Worth £5 of anyone's money. You can't even buy a pint in Bath for that!

What about at the other end of the scale, any wallet-destroying purchases?
That ‘heat-piped/liquid-cooled’ Dreamcast was £££! Shikigami no Shiro 2 Special Edition was also expensive.

Quirkiest, odd or just down right strangest item in your collection? We all have them...

I suppose I’d have to say my custom-modded Dreamcast arcade stick, which I modified a couple of years back. I ditched the stick and buttons, which asides from being that horrible shade of sickly green, just weren’t that great (the buttons weren’t micro-switched and the stick was just “ok” and had a square restrictor gate). As such, I replaced them with brand new Sanwa parts and an octagonal gate, which makes pulling off specials and supers a lot easier. The colour scheme, which is based on my other love, the Neo Geo MVS, is also far better. Not strange I suppose, but unique to me.

Rob's modded arcade stick looks the part

Do you have any further collecting goals in mind?

I also wrote about this recently on the site, Musings on Christmas Eve and feel that I have reached a stage where I have pretty much everything I want on Dreamcast or can really afford. Would I like other Dreamcast games? Yes, yes I would, however the money it would require to add them to my collection is not something I can justify.

A completely fair position I say! That being said, do you have that one piece, that 'Holy Grail', that you just couldn't pass up if the opportunity arose?
As I said before, I have very modest collecting goals now on the Dreamcast, however that said I would love to get my hands on the Sega GaGa Box Set.

A couple more examples of Rob's collection

Rob, I'm right there with you on that one! Thanks to Rob for sharing his little slice of Dreamcast Heaven.

We head across the pond for our next Junkyarder, Barry the Nomad co-host of the SEGAbits Swingin' Report Show and a key member of the SEGAbits team as well as being an all round Sega expert.

Junkyard Member:
Barry the Nomad

Junkyard Location:
Chicago, IL, USA

When did you first get a Dreamcast?
At around launch, though I had to get things in stages because so many stores were sold out. I got my console and copy of Sonic Adventure first, and over the following weeks got a much needed VMU, Hydro Thunder and Power Stone.

How long have you been collecting?
Since 9/9/1999

What's in your Junkyard?
Primarily American games (around 140), a decent amount of Japanese titles (roughly 30), and a sampling of European games (under 10). 

Great DC Games + Shenhua and Ryo figures = A man with great taste

I am not a completionist, I usually go for good games, unique games, or games that are too cheap not to pass up. I also collect accessories and try to buy all the games that utilize them.

Any serious DC gamer needs a boxed of loved accessories

Which items in your collection do you hold particularly dear to your heart?
Any game I bought new at the time of release, especially the classics like Sonic Adventure, Jet Set Radio, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia and Power Stone 2. I know some of these don't go for too much money nowadays, but the fast that they are my copies from release mean a lot. I also am very proud of my complete collection of Official Dreamcast Magazine as well as all the demo discs.

Lovely set of ODM US mags with discs

I also was honored to receive a Sonic the Hedgehog 20th anniversary statue as a gift from Francesca Reyes of The Official Dreamcast Magazine and Official Xbox Magazine fame. I had interviewed Fran some years back and expressed how great an influence her writing was to my blog writing and work at SEGAbits. When the Xbox Magazine crew were folding shop, she found the Sonic statue in her office and thought of me. A very nice gesture from an awesome and influential woman. 

A lotta Sonic

Any great deals in compiling your DC collection?

A used launch model Japanese Dreamcast with Virtua Fighter 3tb, King of Fighters '99 and Rez included for a cool $56 on ebay. The bonus? When I got it home, I realized it had a mod chip!

Brothers in arms against the Sony empire

Any items that have been hard on the wallet?
I honestly don't think I have ever spent more than what a game had gone for new on the used market, I tend to go for the deals. I do, however, recall spending a bit on importing Shenmue II when it was brand new in the UK. It was a deal compared to what it goes for now, probably $75 with shipping, but I do recall thinking that I was spending a lot on one game back then. 

A great line up of Indie titles there Barry!

Any decidedly odd parts to your collection?
I've always had a soft spot for terrible third party Dreamcast accessories. The imitation maracas – like the Cha Cha Amigo maracas – are always amusing, especially the box art. I also love the ugly third party controllers, like Interact's Quantum Fighterpad, that don't feel good in your hands at all.

This article is fast becoming a want list for me....

That's a lot of thinking...

Do you have any goals in mind with your collection, or any items you're focusing on?
I have a small list of must own games that I'd like to get through, mainly Japanese and European exclusives. I'd also like to get my hands on more printed materials, especially strategy guides and European magazines.

And what about those 'Holy Grails', those desperately sought out items you're most after?
I know it will sound lame, but the Planetweb 3.0 browser disc. I know it sells for between $50 and $150 on ebay, but I am always hopeful I'll find it in the corner of some retro shop who tossed it in with the other browser discs and demos. I'd also like to get my hands on Evil Twin, Napple Tale and Cannon Spike.

We all need a Sonic shrine; Barry's is particularly gorgeous

My thanks to Barry for sharing his Dream collection, and I advise everyone to go spend some time on the excellent SEGAbits, one of the biggest and best all round SEGA sites on the interweb.



A trip back to the UK now, and the second Junkyard from the west country, this time from another new arrival to the DCJY staff, Mike.... or to end the prospect of speaking solely in the 3rd person for this piece, me! I'm the writer of the Dreamcast Junkyard Ultimate collectors guide and am delighted to be part of the Yard crew!

Junkyard Member:
Mike, aka Space_turnip

Junkyard Location:
Yate, just outside of Bristol, UK

When did you first get a Dreamcast?
It's difficult to remember exactly when I first purchased a DC, but it was very early in 2000. I was exclusively a PC gamer from the start of my 6th form onwards (so about '97), and the DC would of been my second 'big' purchase after I started in the world of work after a shiny new PC set up. Had been a Sega fan boy in console terms since the Master System days though.

How long have you been collecting for?
Probably about 5 years 'seriously'. I sold my DC many years ago, before picking one up again in the Bristol Gamestation as part of getting into Retro game collecting, and that would of been probably 2007-2008. Took me a couple of years until I decided to properly collect for the Dreamcast, as I initially just tried to buy as many retro systems and games as possible. My fondness for the DC led me to concentrate more on it, and in the last couple of years I've sold most of the rest of my collection to concentrate more on the DC.

Tell everyone a bit about your collection, Mike:
I've got a complete PAL collection, about 100 North American games (including all but one of the non-PAL releases), over 400 Japanese games (including a couple of dozen of the limited editions), all but one of the Indie releases, a dozen or so boxed accessories both first and third party, 5 consoles, a bunch of loose accessories, several other bits and pieces that I suppose could be defined as 'other' memorabilia, 60+ magazines, books and guides and a bunch of loosely related figures and the like that I like to call part of the collection. Also have about 50 of the white label promo discs.

Literally, my corner of Dreams

Indie releases - one day Frog Feast, you will be mine

US releases

What would you describe as your most treasured DC related possession?
I'm really happy I managed to get the Dream para para knockoff game and controller without really having to try (was offered it when buying another item). Alongside that I'm happy to have both the De la Jet Set Radio and Space Channel 5 part 2 box sets, as they were the ones (alongside the Segagaga one) that opened my eyes to some of the cooler box sets for the DC. In fact, my little display of Limited editions is something I really do treasure, as I'm a sucker for box sets (as my current gen shelves bare witness to).

Dream Para Para controller at the top, amongst some boxed accessories

Running out of space on the limited edition shelves

Modesty notwithstanding, having a copy of my own collectors guide is something I understandably hold dear to my heart too!

Any great deals you've managed to secure over the years?
Literally (and I do mean literally) the day after deciding I was going for a complete PAL set, I found a mint copy of Street Fighter III 3rd Strike in a charity shop not 5 minutes from my house for 50p, alongside a couple of others. I've not seen any other DC games at all, not even rubbish ones, there since.
I also got lucky with my DC collection as many co-workers of mine at the time, when I said I was collecting for the DC, sold me their own items, which includes boxed consoles, arcade sticks, many of the tougher to find games, and it was all quite cheap.

PAL games

What's the most you've ever spent on building your collection?
Evolution 2 (PAL) was around £80 I think, as were the twin sticks. I've spent a bit more for bundles, but have always made my initial outlay back in future trades. To be honest, most of the last few years of collecting has been selling other Retro stuff to buy DC stuff, so I don't really consider any of it expensive. At least, that's the story I tell the fiancée....

Do you have any odd, quirky or just plan weird pieces in your collection?
I have a few. The Pop'n music character key ring is a bit odd. Some of the larger box sets have some weird contents as well.

Some of the 'extra' DC items

What goals do you have for your collection going forward?
I may be insane (in fact, I don't think there's any 'may' about it), but I am focused on getting at least 1 version of every game. In fact, that's one of the reasons I wrote the guide in the first place, to help me do that. I'm in no major rush, and am happy to pick up items if and when I find them for a good price. Also want to complete my UK mag collections, start a US one maybe, and then possibly start expanding the collection into 'DC related games on other systems'...but one step at a time.

Magazines and books

And is there any particular 'Holy Grail' you have in mind?
Despite their use being limited to being fancy coasters now, I still want to get the 5 remaining Bird Cage / Grauen no Tarikego Kapitel discs. I'm also hoping I can pick up the last US non-PAL release I need for a cheap price, Giga Wing 2. To be honest....my want list is huge!

There's no denying how much nicer the Japanese games look together

We're back over the Atlantic again for our next Junkyarder, regular participant on the DreamPod and prolific article writer since joining the crew in 2007, Caleb.

Junkyard Member:
Caleb

Junkyard Location:
I'm from upstate New York in the US. I still live in the North Country, but I am hoping to move soon.

When did you first get a Dreamcast and how long have you been collecting for?
I have been collecting since 2002 when I got my first Dreamcast in college. A fellow member of the college swim team was switching to Xbox and he sold me his Dreamcast collection which included lightguns, controllers, and several great games. Soon after that some dick (probably a certain housemate of mine) stole the console but I was eventually able to replace it.

Tell us a little bit about your collection Caleb:
I have an excellent collection of the best multiplayer games for the Dreamcast! This includes the setups for Samba de Amigo and Typing of the Dead. I organize video game tournaments every once in a while.

Some great US titles amongst this lot

Death Crimson OX...um

D2 in it's North American glory

The lovely Capcom version of the ASCII Pad

Some fine examples of Indie releases on the DC

What's the most prized part of your Dreamcast collection?
My Most prized Dreamcast item is a copy of Shenmue 2 given to my by FatherK a past contributor to The Dreamcast Junkyard. It's the best gift anyone has ever given me.

There's few finer gifts I can think of than a copy of Shenmue II

Any great deals you've managed to secure over the years?
I got a copy of Powerstone 2 for $4 at thrift store who had it bundled with a bunch of PS1 stuff.

An impressive $4 find

I also got a huge lot of NES stuff for $5 and an Atari Lynx in box with games in box for $3 at a garage sale once.

Any real bank-breaking purchases for the DC?
I probably dropped over $100 on a huge online goodwill auction that included an arcade stick and a ton of games. Honestly I was never in a position to spend a lot of money on video games so my collection is mostly from garage sales, thrift shops and back when you could get inexpensive lots on eBay.

A pair of Amigos...

Caleb's Panther DC

Any strange or quirky pieces in your collection?
Probably a copy of Fire Pro Wrestling D signed by Mick Foley (who isn't officially in that game).

Mick Foley signed copy of Fire Pro Wrestling D

Do you have any current collection goals in mind?

My collection is pretty good right now but I am always looking to add more if I run into any deals. I saw a giant Skies of Arcadia statue in thrift store the other day but they wanted $300 for it! Which shows how bad thrift stores are getting because the same statue is selling for $150 on eBay.

And finally, is there any one particular 'Holy Grail' you'd love to get your hands on?
Not really. There are so many excellent games and controllers for the Dreamcast but I have all I need to run video game events and that is what matters to me. If I get a chance to have a professional build me a custom arcade stick for the Dreamcast that might be something worth saving up for.

A few more of the essential accessories in Caleb's collection

HD goodness

Cheers Caleb, another awesome collection. Check out Caleb's Youtube channel for somequality videos here

We return to the UK for our next Junkyarder, the mind behind the Junkyards Top 100 and Top 200 lists. He's also written numerous other articles and features for the site, and was the first recruit to the 'Yard back in 2006.

Junkyard member:

Hello there, I'm Aaron Foster aka The Gagaman.

Junkyard Location:

Southend-on-Sea in Essex, UK. We have the world's longest pier apparently! Also a surprisingly decent sea-front row of arcades.

When did you first get a Dreamcast?

The end of November 1999 for my 13th Birthday, so not long after the UK launch.

The shrine-like corner where most of my Sega games reside

How long have you been collecting seriously for the Dreamcast?

I was buying Dreamcast games throughout it's entire life of store shelves, but I don't think I started seriously collecting until around 2003 when the games were really cheap to find second hand.

Tell us then, what do you have in your Junkyard?

My full collection can be seen in detail over at RF Generation, but to summarize I own about 119 Japanese games, 63 American games, 31 PAL games and 16 Indie games.

Almost all of my Dreamcast games are on this shelf...

...but a few PAL games leak over to what used to be my main DC shelf that I customised with the logo on the side

I have just enough VMU's to save every one of those games as well as a pile of controllers including two arcade sticks, two fishing controllers, two sets of Samba De Amigo maracas, two light guns, controller adapters so I can use my Saturn Twin Sticks and more, a racing wheel, a DDR dance mat, the Pop 'n Music controller, Keyboard, Mouse, the Dreameye and the Densha De Go train controller.

A bunch of my controllers and VMUs are stored in this Dreamcast carry bag!

Just some of the boxed controllers, the rest are in the loft

Console wise I have 2 PAL systems, a Sega Sports black American Dreamcast, a modded Japanese console and a Treamcast, which is a nice novelty that I have actually taken on breaks away occasionally.

Treamcast!

Do you have any prized possessions in your Dreamcast collection?

This Dreamcast above which I had signed by Yuji Naka, Takashi Iizuka and Jun Senoue during the Summer of Sonic event in London in 2011 in time for the 20th Anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. It was pure luck that I even got this as the long, sweaty queue for signings was about to cut off right as I was next but Jun demanded that the queue was allowed to continue for a bit longer, bless him! I also have copies of Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic 1 signed by Iizuka and Naka which my suffering girlfriend also joined the queue to get for me.

This photo came out a lot posher looking than expected

Some of the more exotic games in my collection

Any great deals you've managed to secure over the years?

I prize myself on trying to find bargains and with the Dreamcast I have had plenty over the years. On eBay I've had some lucky deals including the Segagaga collectors box set for £50, Cosmic Smash for £20 and Yu Suzuki Game Works for £35. Being in the right place at the right time and lots of waiting and resisting got me these for those prices I guess.

My Treamcast was acquired by trading with someone in Portugal for a complete UK Official Dreamcast magazine set, who was kind enough to even Skype me a video showing the system working.

Any real bank-breaking purchases for the DC?

The priciest purchases I've made were both large bundles but for what they contained were well worth the money that was splashed out. A majority of my American Dreamcast game collection came from one of these bundles which also included a Sega Sports console and Napple Tale. The other bundle contained the modded Japanese console along with games like Giga Wing 1 and 2, Trizeal and Radirgy among others.

As for single items, I recall paying out £75 for my PAL Samba De Amigo maraca set many moons ago and the Sturmwind collectors set was pretty expensive too.

Any strange or quirky pieces in your collection?
I own an assortment of action figures and toys based on Dreamcast characters, including House of the Dead 2, Crazy Taxi (which includes a large radio controlled car), Space Channel 5 and Sonic Adventure. I even own a ugly plush toy of Seaman and a tiny toy Dreamcast, small enough to fit inside a VMUs' screen!

I also have some Dreamcast related manga, including a couple volumes of 'Sega make the Best Games in the World!' starring anthropomorphic consoles as well as a Dreamcast Doujinshi featuring characters from Resident Evil CODE: Veronica, Soul Calibur and others and mostly seems to consist of dick jokes. Yeah...

Some Dreamcast reading material, even though I can only read three of them

Finally, what goals do you have for your collection going forward?

My collection is very close to where I want it to be: I don't have any aims to own every game there is or complete any particular set, I just want to own every game that I know I will come back to and enjoy in some fashion.

As far as games go I'm only really after a handful of pricey rare ones: Zero Gunner 2, Cleopatra Fortune and Cannon/Gun Spike are at the top of my list, with others like Space Channel 5 Part 2, Psyvariar 2 and the American release of D2 also desired if I can get them for the right price. Hint hint do me a solid etc.

I feel quite lucky to have built up my collection when I did and it's one of my proudest collections of all the stuff I own. There isn't much I would change about it now to be honest.

Thanks Aaron for sharing the awesome collection!

Our globe-trotting tour of Junkyards ends with a visit to Scott, the Yard's resident Antipodean correspondent, all round Sega fanatic and prolific Sega Retro contributor.

Junkyard Member:

Scott Marley, aka Doc Eggfan, or just Eggfan - a somewhat wearisome moniker that has followed me from my halcyon days in the Sonic game hacking community.

I can also be found in playable character form in Wind and Water Puzzle Battles and the soon to be released Alice Dreams Tournament, as well as a secret boss character in Pier Solar HD

Junkyard Location:

Born and bred in 'Straya, currently residing in our national bush fortress, Canberra

Eggfan's Dreamcast Junkyard, circa 2006

How long have you been collecting for?
It all began way back late in 2000, when I bought my first Dreamcast just a few short weeks before Sega announced they were pulling up stumps. In spite of the smug shopkeep trying to convince me to get a PS2 instead, I remained steadfast in my resolution and to this day I still regret nothing.

I've still got the original box. Oh Telstra Big Pond, how you screwed us over

When did you first get a DC?

I had spent far too much time and money during my teenage years on my Mega Drive obsession. My mum noticed the early signs of obsessive compulsive mania and was reluctant to permit an upgrade to a Saturn or Playstation during the late 90s to try and curb my enthusiasm. I was okay with that, as I had convinced myself that my hand-built 32X-CD monstrosity was close enough to the 32-bit cutting edge. But when I passed my final high school exams with an unbelievable result that placed me in the top 0.7% of the state, I was rewarded with the go ahead to buy a brand new Dreamcast, coupled with Sonic Adventure and SoulCalibur. This spawned an even greater and more costly obsession in the years to come. Thanks mum!

Eggfan's Dreamcast (not-so-junky) Junkyard circa 2016. Everything's all archived away in boxes until the glorious day when I can spread out into a larger home

Show us you collection Scott!

Hardware

No more utopia boot discs for me

• Three Dreamcasts, one for each region – my original PAL model I bought back in 2000 (with some replacements to weary parts over the years), a Black Sega Sports model from America, and a first generation 'liquid cooled' (but not really) Japanese model
• Jerry-rigged NAOMI 2 and Atomiswave arcade boards
• All the peripherals you could possibly ever want, including unnecessary stupid weird things like the Densha de Go Train controller, the ASCII Mission Flight stick and the Pop 'n' Music bopper
• My steering wheel and arcade sticks have been converted to work exclusively with my NAOMI 2 though, as I prefer to use hand controllers (including the ASCII 6 button fighter pad) with my home consoles 
• Also got a DreamConn Ver.2 and my prototype DreamTrance vibrator (more on that soon!)

Software  

Japanese hoard, circa 2006

Full list

• 434 unique official software titles across all the main regions (513 when counting multi-region double ups). An impressive total, but still shy of a full set by more than 200
• An almost complete set (48) of unofficial releases (missing the German pressed release of Volgarr the Viking and the Gran Turismo 2 Bleemcast disc. I also failed to secure a pre-order for the "Limited Limited Edition" of Slave and I'm still fuming about that)
• 33 Demo discs and 6 web browser variations
• 38 official NAOMI games (cartridges and discs), plus 15 Compact Flash bootlegs
• 13 Atomiswave cartridges (all but one are Chinese bootlegs)
• Various Soundtracks, mainly for late release shmups, and includes the Dreamcast Collection Vinyl LP

What's the most prized possession within your collection?

My Naomi 2 holds a special place in my heart, as it was a real labour of love to acquire all the necessary parts and make them all work together. I had never done anything like that before, and it showed me that there is a whole other side to the retrogaming hobby if you're prepared to risk solder burns and death by electric shock, but the rewards can be extremely worthwhile.

It's alive! ALIVE!

The Segagaga Limited edition box set also holds a lot of sentimental value, as it pays tribute to not only the Dreamcast but Sega's entire legacy as well. Those pins of the system logos in the balsa wood box are a sight to behold and can bring a tear to the most steely of hearts. 

I'd wager there's nothing more beautiful than this in the whole of Dreamcast-dom

I'm also quite fond of several titles that were hard to come by: 

Frog Feast is a buggy, mostly unplayable mess, and only about 20 'official' copies are estimated to be in circulation. However, verifying their authenticity is basically impossible, as they were “published” by burning the game to blank CD-Rs. I believe I have a legit copy, but who knows.

Possibly the rarest Dreamcast release ever

DreamParaPara with the hand-waving sensor was also hard to come by, but I managed to track one down. I can imagine the ultimate Dreamcast rhythm action nightmare experience would be to try and play Samba de Amigo with the maracas, Dance Dance Revolution on the dancing mat and DreamParaPara with the sensors… all at the same time.

Thanks, Chinese bootleggers

Geist Force almost didn't make it into my collection. I'm not an active member of the Assembler forums, but when the Geist Force prototype was up for grabs, I bid a substantial amount of money to get the game into the hands of someone who would release it publicly, and when I was outbid, I offered to donate my bid to the group that were fighting for the same cause. Somewhere along the way, I was left out of the loop, and when I heard later that the patched up game was being published and released to a select group of people, I was pretty mad that I wasn't included. Luckily, one came up for auction on eBay and I paid a stupid amount of money to get it. A great injustice was rectified.

Another rare gem, almost missed out on this one

The last Dreamcast game to complete my DVD case collection was the limited edition release of Patisserie Nanyanko, which took ages to track down. It didn't help that no-one could decide how best to romanise the title (for example Party Shana Nanco).

The one in question is third from bottom right

Best Deal over the years?

I honestly don't know. I was most active in accumulating my hoard between 2002 and 2007, and during those in-between years Dreamcast games were ten a penny - old enough to be in the bargain bins, but not old enough to be considered retro and collectable. It's probably a good thing I can't remember specifics, I'd probably make a modern Dreamcast collector explode into a fit of furious anger or a puddle of blubbering tears. 

All purchased long before the Shenmue III announcement. Jealous?

Most you've ever spent on a DC piece?

Again, I don't really remember - when you've spent thousands of dollars on Laseractive Mega LD titles, my biggest buyer's remorse from the Dreamcast collection kind of fades into obscurity. 

It was probably the limited edition release of Border Down, which I think I paid somewhere in the $300 range for. I fell in love with Under Defeat, which I pre-ordered and bought on release day, so I really wanted to go back and try G.rev's first shooter. I kept losing ebay auctions, and one time I just snapped and wouldn't take no for an answer.

My complete G.rev collection

Strangest piece of DC merchandise you own?
It's probably the little credit card sized promotional GD disc I stumbled across. It features unplayable gameplay videos for three games: Hundred Swords, Super Robot Wars Alpha, and Neon Genesis Evangelion: Typing Hokan Keikaku. It was probably given away for free at Japanese retailers, but I don't know much about it.

Size comparison from opposite eras of the Sega spectrum

When I pre-ordered the special WINDSTÄRKE 12 Limited Edition of Sturmwind direct from Redspot games, I was disappointed to find out that Play-Asia were exclusively bundling their copies with a Krakor plush. So, being the obsessive compulsive nut that I am, I had to get myself one too.

Release the Kraken!

I also have the complete set of @Barai games, which were an interesting experiment by Sega to sell full games at a budget price in retail stores. Only the first part of the game would be accessible, and in order to play the rest of the game, an unlock code would need to be purchased online. This let you playtest the game for a bit to see if you liked it first before you committed to a full price investment.

Sega were always willing to try new things, but they didn't always take off

One of the strangest items I have that I actually use on a daily basis is the messenger/laptop bag that was bundled with Neon Genesis Evangelion: Typing E-Keikaku. It's a replica of the ones used by the main computer technicians in the original TV series, and I take my personal x86-64 tablet to work in it everyday, 'cos I'm one cool dude.

Shhh! Don't tell Commander Ikari!

What does the future of your collection look like? Any goals in mind?

After consulting the DCJY Ultimate Collectors Guide, there's a handful of mediocre titles left that I want to get, maybe three dozen or so, and after that I can draw a line in the sand. I would have everything that is even remotely playable or interesting, and if I kept going, I'd be just looking for additional storage space to house a whole bunch of notoriously bad games, unworthy sports games, pachinko sims, dating sims, or games that require servers that don't exist any more.

I'm already occupying the cupboards in my sister's kitchen, so there just isn't anymore room to expand

The back of my mind is still tempted to go for the full set though, just for the bragging rights. But the satisfaction of obtaining a full set is elusive, as no matter how many times you think you're finished, there is always something else. Got a full PAL set? What about all the different regional/language variations? Got a full set of American releases? What about those 'Sega All Stars' re-releases, or the Midway 'Hot! New!' variations? And don't forget those South American TecToy releases and those somewhat dubiously 'officialish' games that were translated and released in Russia? See? The saga never ends, so you've got to draw the line somewhere. 

Do you have a single Holy Grail?

If I had the space, I'd love to own one of the original style NAOMI Universal cabinets, the ones that stand upright and lean back with a CRT monitor that can be rotated into Yoko and Tate modes. They aren't particularly expensive, especially if you can source one within driving distance to pick up yourself, but I just don't have room for one.

You will be mine one day, my precious

On the hardware front, some 'nice-to-haves' would be the Divers 2000 unit, a Katana devkit, a Treamcast, that strange internet kiosk Dreamcast that was used for playing Hundred Swords and no-one seems to know much about, or even just one of those swanky looking limited edition Dreamcasts, like the Resident Evil ones, or that Gold painted one. In the end though, I'm don't think I'm particularly fussed enough to bother actively seek them out. 

A more realistic holy grail would be the 10-disc Sakura Wars collection box set I recently stumbled across on Yahoo Auctions. I've never played the series, so you wouldn't say I'm a huge fan, but the set looks beautiful and would be a nice showcase piece. I also don't have the Space Channel 5 Part 2 box set with the headphones, which is also very much on my radar.

It's so pretty

No wait! I've got it! The true Holy Grail would be the Dreamcast discs that were used as props in the film Gamera 3 – Revenge of Iris. There's no way that the 'Nevinyrral' disc would be playable, but they would be a unique and virtually unobtainable item worthy of the title “Holy Grail.”

I wonder if these have been kept in someone's possession, or whether  they were just discarded a long time ago

Thanks to Scott for sharing his amazing collection!

So there we have it; a whistle-stop, globe-trotting tour of the collections that we at the Junkyard have nurtured, loved, admired and desired. My thanks to all the Junkyard team who contributed to this article.

Attack Of The Clones

March 19, 2016, 9:12 am

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Clone systems are nothing new and they're not going away any time soon either. If you don't know what a clone system is, let me enlighten you. A clone is a console usually manufactured and sold in countries where laws are lax and cheap electronic manufacturing processes are a way of life. Using the (nefariously reproduced) innards of older 8-bit systems such as an Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System or Sega Master System, a clone invariably comes with roms pre-installed, a controller that is a piece of shit and a shell that looks like the bastard lovechild of Sloth from The Goonies and the morbidly obese red car from that old Milky Way advert.

The Chameleon refuses to die.

In truth, most clone consoles are utter crap, but in some places they're the only way to play games simply because owning a PS4 or any other genuine gaming machine just isn't financially possible. Please be assured that I'm not mocking the societal hardships of fellow gamers in less developed nations, but that's just how it is. Saying that, calling the UK a 'developed nation' is pushing it - I saw a human turd in the street the other day.

Now, the reason I bring up clones is that it's become apparent that there are a couple that borrow heavily from the shell designs of legit systems...and some of them even mimic the hallowed Dreamcast. There aren't that many (not as many as ape the PlayStation, for example) but I thought it'd be interesting to have a look at the ones I could find. And by 'find,' I mean copy from a Google image search. Cough.

Dorikyasu Game Corner

This contraption is basically a NES in the shape of a Dreamcast. According to the almost impenetrable description from the website it is listed on (after being translated by Google, natch), the Game Corner features a cartridge slot under the lid and a handy eject button. The bundled controllers are N64 rip-offs and it also comes with a knock-off Namco GunCon for some reason. Could be handy for Duck Hunt I guess. Sadly, the Game Corner is no longer available, but I think it's safe to say no-one will be losing any sleep over it. Interestingly, the same site also lists handheld Dreamcasts that are built to order, but those are no longer for sale either.

Mega Drive V

The Mega Drive V, as the name so cunningly suggests, is a Mega Drive/Genesis clone in Dreamcast clothing. This system appears to hail from Russia and the box has some rather nice yet totally unsanctioned Mortal Kombat artwork on it. As with the Game Corner, the Mega Drive V has the ability to accept carts via a slot under the lid and for some reason the creators of this shodtastic abomination decided to go with PlayStation controllers rather than the expected Mega Drive ones. Happily though, they're referred to as 'convenient horned turbo game pads,' so Sony's lawyers don't really have a leg to stand on should they wish to crack down on the V's manufacturer.

Dream Z Plus / Dream Z Plus Alpha

These Korean clones are perhaps the most faithful in design to the Dreamcast as they even take the controller model and copy them almost verbatim. Naturally, there's no VMU support and the little 'LCD screens' are almost certainly stickers but you can't fault the manufacturer for effort. There's precious little information on either of these variants of the Dream Z Plus, but the shells look like slightly stretched Dreamcasts with different controller ports on the front and an extra button. Again, due to the lack of information I'm unable to tell if these just have a load of crappy built in games or sport a secret cart slot for some hot Famiclone action. Still, they both come with two controllers plus a light gun, and the Alpha comes with an arcade stick type thing too. It looks like it would explode with the force of the Tunguska event as soon as it was plugged in, but it's a nice addition to the package nonetheless.

Handy Boy

There's even less info about this one online and the only real reference I can find to it is this thread on the mighty Dreamcast-Talk forum. Unlike the other clones listed here, the Handy Boy is an all-in-one and likely has all the games stored inside and offers some kind of menu system from which you can select your own path to gaming hell. I'm going to make an educated guess here and predict that the software contained within this pandora's box probably consists of the same broken 8-bit games replicated 10,000 times (but with a different colour palette), just like those godawful 250-in-1 Gameboy cartridges you occasionally see being sold by dickheads at car boot sales for £20 because they're 'rare.'

Treamcast

I know it's not really a clone because it allows you to play actual Dreamcast games, but I just thought I'd troll you dear reader. Because I love you. To be honest, I'm pretty sure nobody is even reading this, so I can type what I want. I might as well type Lorem Ipsum because most people will briefly glance at the pictures and go back to tweeting images of Megadrive games with a 'retrogaming' hashtag. I fucking hate Twitter, and it's because of the whole hipster 'I like games but I don't know what a 3DO is' crowd. One day, when the Earth has been scorched by a million nuclear missiles, a lone mutant will shuffle upon a broken VMU amongst the sand and bleached bones. They'll drool, pick it up with fused fingers and hold it aloft toward the super-expanded red giant that the sun hath become. And on the back of that VMU will be scratched the URL to this very post. But there'll be no internet. And there'll be nobody with the ability to read. Oh, the irony.

Anyway, I'm sure there are plenty more Dreamcast-inspired clones floating around out there, so if you find one please share it with us either in the comments or on the DCJY Facebook group. Also, you'll find a much more in-depth look at clone systems on Wikipedia here. Also, special thanks to Cauterize from RetroCollect for the link to the Game Corner.

Right, I'm off to cook some fish fingers over a burning wellington boot. Bye!

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New Xenocider Footage Released

March 21, 2016, 1:37 am

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The Dreamcast homebrew and indie scenes are exploding right now and Spanish developer Retro Sumus is at the forefront of this wave, working on some very promising titles for our beloved box of tricks. AMEBA is a self-styled 'westernised' visual novel following the investigations of a Madrid-based detective and features some quite brilliant artwork. The other game from Retro Sumus is Xenocider and it is shaping up to be one of the most eagerly anticipated new Dreamcast games.

A clear homage to Sega's epic sci-fi arcade blaster Space Harrier, Xenocider sees you take control of a lone crusader battling all manner of monsters across various alien worlds. Retro Sumus has now released some early footage of its bespoke 3D engine running on genuine Dreamcast hardware and we have the exclusive footage right here.

The game is still very early and doesn't show any enemies or other mechanics, but as a glimpse at what is coming it really is very impressive from a technical standpoint. Fogging is already written in, and other effects will likely be added. Perhaps the important things to take away from this, is that Xenocider is running on genuine Dreamcast hardware, boasts a totally new engine and is running at a stable 60fps. On the basis of this alone, Xenocider looks like a title to keep an eye on.

Thanks to Carlos Oliveros from Retro Sumus for permission to post the video. You can read our interview with Carlos here, or listen to our Retro Sumus special episode of DreamPod here.

The Dreamcast Epitech Collection

March 22, 2016, 4:43 am

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Just a short post this, and I can't really take any credit for the high quality video content that's about to assault your senses. No, the spoils for the aforementioned must go to our good friend and prolific YouTuber Pcwzrd13, who has come up with the goods yet again! If I didn't know better, I'd be inclined to wager that Mr Wzrd is actually a transcendent AI, trawling the interwebs for the most obscure Dreamcast stuff there is and neatly packaging it up as digestible, well-made videos. Luckily, I'm here to re-blog his stuff and artificially generate more hits for the Junkyard like a damned leech, so everyone's a winner.

But I digress. The Epitech Collection is a compendium of rough homebrew games created by a class of students at Epitech in 2002. If you don't know, Epitech is a colossal information technology and computing college in Paris, France and these unfinished (but still quite impressive) titles are the result of some coding sessions involving Dreamcast and Gameboy Advance development tools. Here's the video:

You can actually download these games and try them yourself, so let us know how you get on if you decide to give them a whirl. As always, be sure to subscribe to Pcwzrd's Dreamcastic Channel for even more cool videos like this one.

DreamPod - Episode 28: Bonus Features - 'Ghost Host' Textual Commentary

March 23, 2016, 7:40 am

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Bear with me while I draw a long bow...

You know how DVDs and Blu-rays often come with audio commentary that you can listen to while you're watching the film? You can get further insight into what's happening on screen or interesting behind the scenes anecdotes. Well, what if I could do an audio commentary for a podcast? That would be silly wouldn't it? You can't listen to both at once, unless you spliced more then one audio source together into an extended podcast (Tom from the Future says Hi!), but that's not really the same, is it? So how about a textual commentary? Wouldn't that be cool? It's like we've dropped two levels from a second order derivative back to the original equation (Video > Audio > Screenplay, or TV > Radio Play > Book). See? It totally makes sense.

Ooooh, a maths analogy, this must be a classy blog

Well, I'm just gonna go for it anyway, since it pains me to listen back to a podcast that I wasn't able to join in with (i.e. slept in too late and missed). I have lots of things I could have added to the discussion, but because I missed the recording session, they would have to remain unsaid without an outlet to voice them. Until now, that is...

By the way, great episode guys - truly sorry that I missed it. If you missed it too, you can listen to episode 28 of DreamPod here.

02:20 - Tom: ... but you know, as we always do, we'll speak a bit about what we've played or or what we've bought...

I've been really addicted to Leona's Tricky Adventures lately, and have been playing that almost exclusively at the moment. After the initial honeymoon period where I was besotted by the superb presentation and the obvious love put into the game by the developers, I became aware of some nagging disappointment.

I've made it past the unbreakable rocks phase

I'm a bit of a puzzle game fan, but my main poison are games where you create chain reactions by matching colours, like in Puzzle Bobble or Puyo Puyo. I was expecting a similar mechanic in Leona's and I didn't really like the field matching dynamic to begin with. It reminds me of the way I used to solve, or attempted to solve, the Rubik's cube - trial and error until I surprised myself with a solution. I was less involved, and progress felt more like hit and miss, with extensive use of the undo button.

Problem solved!

However, now that I'm a bit deeper into it, it's all kind of clicked in my head. I'm over my bruised expectations and am really starting to dig it. The learning curve is really well designed, and I'm enjoying the more challenging puzzles I'm now coming up to. I would have liked a bit more interaction in the overworld environment though, like some fetch quests or something, but I'm still hopeful these might still happen a bit later in the game.

I've rebuilt the town hall, and the owl mayor is happy. I'm on a roll.

Other than that, I've been playtesting my prototype DreamTrance Vibrator with some good ol' sessions with Rez. So far, no overheating or tripped fuses, so it seems like the Dreamcast can survive two vibration packs powered from the one slot. A do-it-yourself guide will appear on the 'yard at some point in the near future.

It's not a sex toy. Seriously.

Interestingly, and I never thought I would be one of these people, but the lag in the wireless Dream Conn V2.0 controller, which admittedly is fantastically close to zero, did bug me just a little bit too much when using it to play games like Rez. When I'm using it for slower games like Leona, it's great, as I can sit back and relax and I don't even notice it. When it comes to game where quick reflexes matter though, you can't really beat a traditional wired controller.

08:49 - Tom: The only other game I've been playing on the Dreamcast is a game called ... I'm gonna murder the title here now 'cos I dunno how you actually pronounce it but it's called "Noise-two-es-ay" or "Noise-two-sah." You guys know what I'm talking about?

Yeah Tom, it was me who posted about it recently on the Facebook group. It's been kicking about a lot longer than 2009. Noiz2sa was originally developed for Windows in 2002 by Japanese doujin virtuoso Kenta Cho. It's the sequel to his previous java based games Noiz and Noiz2, so I'm guessing that Noiz2sa means "special addition"... or something. In 2004, the game was ported to Dreamcast by the supremely talented Chui, who is now the lead programmer at Retro Sumus (Carlos from Retro Sumus was previously interviewed here)

Lots of abstract geometry and pseudo 3D effects.

It's a fantastic little gem, with 10 levels and 4 endless modes (normal, hard, extreme, and insane). It's simple, the lack of power-ups keeps you focused on the destruction, and the objective is score chasing rather than single crediting. The frame rate is super slick for the most part, only struggling with the bulletiest of bullet hells, and, like Tom said, the soundtrack is superb and unique to the Dreamcast port. Like Volgarr last year, it's essentially a full-featured release that could have easily justified being sold at retail, but was generously given away for free. It's certainly up there with the best indie shoot-em-ups available for Dreamcast, which is high praise considering the vast army of competition out there.

I would totally have bought this if it had ever happened

Now that Chui's working on Ameba and Xenocider for Retro Sumus, I'd love to see him revisit his port of Noizsa for a pressed physical disc release to be bundled with either of those two games (like how Geometry Wars was bundled with Project Gotham Racing). The game is worthy of a proper release, but if I could change one thing, it would be an option for rotating the display to 'tate" mode for vertical scrolling heaven.

What could be a more perfect double-billing: Xenocider and Noiz2sa. Retro Sumus: Why not?

Furthermore, the Noiz lineage did not end with Noiz2sa. Kenta Cho followed up with two further games in the series: Parsec47 and rRootage. Both of these are dying for Dreamcast ports, if anyone wants to take up the challenge. Be warned, Cho-san's programming language of choice is "D" (comes after C++) which has been known to be notoriously hard to port to other systems.

"Defeat retro enemies modernly" - Parsec47 looks amazing, and sorely needs a Dreamcast port

20:13 - Tom: I've got to admit with you here Ross, I've never seen the anime. It's never really appealed to me.

You should watch it Tom. I was skeptical at first, and it is almost intolerably twee, but there is a lot to love about the series, especially when trying to catch all of the modern and archaic Sega references. Despite it's kiddie show presentation, a lot of the jokes are quite sophisticated and clever. In this one scene, Mega Drive and Dreamcast are trying to convince Saturn to get a passport and visit America (to buy an unusual pet, but that's beside the point). Saturn really doesn't want to go to the States, because she has a sixth sense she isn't going to like it, subtly hinting at the Saturn's poor reception in the West. Like Ross said, the episodes are short (about 10 minutes long), so you can easily binge watch the series on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Go on, give it a go.

The extended family

20:32 - Ross: It's better if you just google "Sega Hard Girls" and you'll see the full name of the anime..

The full title is Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girls, which is an interesting triple entendre, or at least a double and a half entendre. The series is set in a fictional high school, and you can see the obvious misspelling to emphasise the word Coool! but also the phonetic sounds of high school and high score are virtually indistinguishable to the Japanese ear, so you have that additional meaning as well. Man, the Japanese sure love their puns.

High Score!

21:21 - Caleb: Why does the Genesis have like a big book and stuff? Is the Genesis like a nerd in this series.

This is where the great divide occurs between Japan and the West in their appreciation of the Mega Drive/Genesis. In Japan, the Mega Drive was released in the late 80s alongside NEC's PC Engine (wait a minute, Jesse explicitly mentioned the Turbografx-16 in his rantings - the conspiracy is real!). Both were attempting to get out from under the shadow of the almighty Famicom. In spite of her superior 16-bit brain, the Mega Drive was arguably less successful than the PC Engine and both were ultimately defeated by the Super Famicom. Sega's efforts didn't really begin to bear fruit in their adopted country until the Saturn era, which is ironically when the worm turned for them in the West. So it is fitting, from a Japanese perspective, that the Mega Drive was the smarter but ultimately unpopular nerdy girl.

Don't be shy Mega Drive, you have a huge fan base in the West

However, there is an official Genesis Sega Hard Girl, aka "Jennie," that more accurately reflects her success in the West, complete with a stars and stripes bikini, high-heeled knee-high boots, leather jacket and a "Yehaw!" cowboy hat. She is briefly referenced in one of the episodes on the anime (as a competitor in a beauty pageant ranking all the Sega Hard girls - she doesn't win, but I won't spoil who does)

Howdy pardner. Looks like you could use some more freedom.

21:45 - Tom: Is there a 32X girl with like a massive forehead?

Not exactly, she looks to be some kind of fairy or pixie with 'X' shaped wings. Her bio says: "Super 32X loves to tease people, is a fast talker, and will never admit she's wrong even if she's caught in the act, and would rather offer a small army of excuses before she apologizes." So the joke is in her personality, rather than her appearance.

Where's the magic mushroom reference?

21:59 - Ross: Funnily enough, in the game there is a - which one was it? - Sega Pluto, was it Sega Pluto... which was the unreleased Mega Drive 32X combo...

The Pluto was once falsely assumed to be a code name for what would become our beloved Dreamcast, prior to the White belt/Black belt/Katana/Dural code names that followed. However, just a few years back, two prototype Sega Plutos were revealed to the public as cost-reduced Saturn models with built in Netlink modems. If the Pluto had made it to market, it probably would have been the first home console to have internet support straight out of the box (stealing the Dreamcast's thunder by a few years).

This is now reclassified as a dwarf Sega console

What Ross is thinking of is the Sega Neptune, which was to be a combined Mega Drive/32X hybrid. It's believed that no working prototypes were ever built, and the images circulated in magazines at the time was of a non-functioning shell (sounds like a certain Coleco system doing the rounds recently).

Neptune

However, the Neptune also got a Sega Hard girl (of sorts) in the Compile Heart game Hyperdimension Neptunia, which parodies the seventh generation consoles wars and re-imagines the Neptune as an alternate universe "Dreamcast 2," where Sega had continued to fight in the wars. Recently, the universes of Hyperdimension Neptunia and Sega Hard Girls were combined into cross over title Hyperdimesion War Neptunia Versus Sega Hard Girls: Dream Fusion Special. Ross did warn us that this gets quite complicated.

I found it! I found the Dreamcast 2! It's a scantily clad, purple haired anime girl.

28:55 - Tom: I wanna hear about your history with the VMU though guys

I used to play the VMU a lot on the bus back in my university days. I didn't have a problem with the battery life, as I used to insert the little white tab into the back to disengage the battery and conserve power. My favourite unofficial games were Tiny Tetris and Mini Pacman. I think Pacman was the most advanced VMU game I played back in the day, with nice big animated characters.

Waka waka waka

On the official game front, apart from too much time in Chao Adventure, Falcon's Aerial Adventure in the Power Stone mini compilation was pretty sweet, and the Voldo Panic, exclusive to the Japanese release of SoulCalibur, was an awesome Circus Atari clone, with a surprisingly well animated Voldo on the tiny VMU screen

Trust me, it looks better in motion

Tying this back into the Sega Hard Girls discussion, did you know there is a VMU goddess as well? Naturally, she's good friends with Dreamcast and can shrink down to her namesakes size and fit into the controller that DC (stupidly) wears on her head.

Don't forget about VMU, she's an important part of the Sega Hard Girls family too

31:43 - Tom: SLaVE, SLaVE... Guys, I just want to take a little bit of a straw poll, who's pre-ordered it?

Yeah, I have too, but I'm bummed that I missed out on the "Limited Limited Edition." I found out about it just a few days after they were all sold out. Really annoys me, as I had maintained a complete set of every other indie game release up until that point, including all other limited edition variations and re-releases. I now also don't have the German pressed release of Volgarr either, so not sure whether I'm still going to try and get the complete set again. 

You can still place a pre-order for SLaVE at the Goat Store. It's only $20.84, as the price pays homage to one of the game's retro inspirations - Robotron 2084

35:06 - Ross: When you start saying "This is gonna be out next month" or in two months, and then it gets delayed for almost another year... How does that happen?

The game was originally developed on a Dreamcast emulator. If you know anything about emulators, they often notoriously take shortcuts with their approximation of the physical hardware, and can allow for things to happen in emulation that are impossible on real hardware. That was the case with SLaVE, and the whole thing needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. This wasn't known at the time when Goat Store made the first announcement.

Dreamcast coders cable, never leave home without one.

A friend of mine, who goes by the name 'Nemesis,' has started a very worthy project of revisiting the ethos of emulator design to try and engender a greater appreciation for mimicking a system more accurately. The Exodus emulator doesn't emulate systems, but emulates individual chips and processors found within them, and then co-ordinates them to work together in a way that is "cycle accurate." So far, it emulates the chips that make up the Mega Drive (like the Motorolla 68k "blast" processor and the Zilog Z80 sound processor), but it is an open source project and there's no reason why it can't one day (in the far off distant future) be expanded to mimic the Dreamcast Hitachi SH-4 CPU and Power VR GPU as well. Cycle accurate emulators are super slow though, as they prioritise accuracy over performance, but as computers get faster we'll one day be able to emulate old gaming systems flawlessly. 

Exodus in action

37:07 - Tom: The tools that all these indie developers have got are just getting better and better...

Sometimes, I wish Sega would recognise the market place that has grown around their orphaned progeny and just officially release the original Dreamcast software development kit as open source. While indie developers have reverse engineered a lot of it, I'm sure there are still plenty of things about the hardware that are not yet fully understood. Developers might even shy away from using some of the systems more advanced features, as there is some uncertainty about whether they might be straying into some grey areas that could get them in trouble regarding proprietary ownership or unlicensed use of third party firmware. It'd be nice if there was more official clarity about what can and can't be done with Dreamcast development. Surely freeing up the rights to the architecture of a 17 year old system isn't going to hurt anybodies bottom line, and would allow the indie scene to evolve unimpeded without the threat of being raked over the coals for the sake of some seemingly forgotten IP rights. Some larger developers in this market place might also reconsider the Dreamcast as a viable platform if that uncertainty is removed. 

I just want to use the official Dreamcast Movie Creator without fear of being hunted down by CRi Middleware

42:01 - Tom: ScummVM, which is the emulator for various PC games like Broken Sword and Full Throttle...

The only Scumm game I've played is Sam and Max: Hit the Road, which I really enjoyed back in the day. I've been meaning to play more of these old Lucasarts point and click adventures - maybe I should try them on Dreamcast when I get around to it (though honestly, I'll probably just play them on PC, otherwise I've got to dig out my Dreamcast keyboard and mouse, and that's currently far from the path of least resistance). 

Use a fork Sam, that's what I do.

56:43 - Tom: Thanks very much for listening, and we'll see you on the next episode of the DreamPod... and goodbye. Everyone say goodbye.

Bye! If you enjoyed this "Bonus Feature" where I nitpicked to pieces what everyone else said, then let me know in the comments and I might do this semi-regularly going forward into the future, and maybe even revisit some old DreamPods too.

The Mystery Of The EB Special Edition Dreamcast

March 24, 2016, 12:58 pm

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I love a good mystery, and internet-based mysteries are among my favourite types. Of course Moth Man, the Mary Celeste and the tale of Springheel Jack are cool things to read up on, but the ubiquitous nature of the internet means we can all be cyber sleuths without ever leaving our living rooms. And just to compound what I'm yapping about, stuff that was actually spawned by the internet itself (such as Cicada 3301, Unfavourable Semicircle and Webdriver Torso) is every bit as fascinating to me as 'real world' mysteries are.

Fuck...I was only trying to play Doom.

That's not to say the more mundane aspects of the online world are any less wondrous - the very nature of the internet means that stuff written long ago can still be found online and still be read today, either because the hosting service still exists or the Way Back Machine allows us to glimpse into the past and recover the information contained on those garish (and often embarrassing) GeoCities/MySpace pages of yore.

As a person with an unhealthy obsession with all things Dreamcast-related, It probably won't surprise you to learn that I do spend an inordinate amount of time perusing these ghost sites in the hunt for obscure references to cool stuff that never saw the light of day; and the good old Way Back Machine has helped me verify a story more times than I care to remember.

The reason I'm blathering on about all this will become apparent soon enough, but before I continue on this path to self destruction, I need you to do something for me. Open another browser window on your desktop or phone or whatever contraption you're using to read this shit and search for 'Electronics Boutique Blue Dreamcast.' Have a scroll through the results and you'll come across an old archived Reddit thread, a couple of posts to a Racketboy forum thread and about a hundred reproduced passages from a defunct Wikipedia entry:

"Some special Dreamcast models were released in certain regions. In North America, a limited edition black Dreamcast was released with a Sega Sports logo below the Dreamcast logo on the lid, along with matching Sega Sports-branded black controllers. Electronics Boutique offered a blue Dreamcast through its website."

Read that last bit again. Electronics Boutique offered a blue Dreamcast through its website. What?!

The generic 'blue dreamcast' image used when referring to the EB Dreamcast.

It's this errant sentence that seems to have spawned one of the enduring mysteries of the Dreamcast community - did defunct games retailer Electronics Boutique offer a special edition Dreamcast via it's American online store in the early 2000s? If it did, why are there no images of it anywhere and why is every mention of the system on forums shot down within a few replies? 

Now, that sentence doesn't appear in the current Dreamcast page on Wikipedia and by using a combination of Wikipedia's own change-tracking protocols and the Way Back Machine, I've managed to ascertain that the reference was removed some time after 2011. I've also used the Way Back Machine to thoroughly comb what remains of the old Electronics Boutique US website and I can find no mention of a special edition console created just for pre-orderers or early adopters. Indeed, there is no reference to such a system in any of the magazines or pre-release materials I have at my disposal from my own collection of old magazines. 

Reference of 'Dreamcast Blue' from consolecolors.com

Even sites whose whole reason for existing is to cover the various special editions of certain games consoles offer scant details; they all make reference to this blue NTSC-U Electronics Boutique Dreamcast but they all show a generic image of a Dreamcast in an after market shell. Finally, the substantiation against such a system ever being produced rests with Sega Retro, where there is no reference whatsoever to this fantastical machine. The evidence is pretty damning once you lay it all out. To me at least it looks like an incorrect sentence was placed into a Wikipedia entry by persons unknown for their own amusement and an urban myth (albeit one that only found popularity in the darkest recesses of long abandoned Dreamcast forums) was born. 

Case closed, right?

Well yes and no. The whole reason for this post is that I recently received an email from somebody speculating that they may actually own one of these mythical systems...and they provided some photographic evidence to back up their claims:

Upon first inspection, I was convinced that these images may indeed prove the existence of this fabled machine. Maybe it had been produced but so few people had managed to procure them that their existence had passed into myth, been forgotten and ultimately turned into a fairy tale. I wanted to believe that we'd found some thing truly incredible. Naturally, the ability to verify whether this was indeed an EB special edition was impossible due to there being no images online, and at first I was pretty confident that my US-based contact had provided something pretty special. NTSC-U: check. Blue: Check. Official Sega and Windows logos? Check. 

He bought it as part of a job lot from another Dreamcast collector in 2007 and was told it was rare, and that was it. The current owner knows no more about it and only recently discovered the story of the EB system, so that's where my investigations began. The proof looked pretty water tight - the blue body marked with official Sega and Windows CE logs, the clear lid with official Dreamcast codes moulded into the plastic. I have no reason to believe the current owner had anything but similar excitement about this system as I had, and I was pretty stoked to be looking at an exclusive expose for the Junkyard. But - and it's a big but - upon researching further it appears that this system could well be a standard Dreamcast with an official translucent blue top fitted with an official translucent lid. 

This...

...combined with this?

So, it's quite probable that the Dreamcast pictured above is little more than a very cool-looking mod and not a fabled EB Dreamcast. But that's not really the point of this whole meandering diatribe. The point is this: do you know if there is any truth to the tale of the Electronics Boutique Dreamcast? How and why did the rumour begin? Why do several sites list such a thing as existing if it doesn't? If it was always fake, why did somebody feel the need to insert it into a Wikipedia entry? Is this all an elaborate hoax designed to make me look like a stupid c*nt (wouldn't be the first time, to be honest)?

Short of trying to contact somebody from EB Games who worked there between 1999 and 2000, we're looking to you - the community - to help to solve or debunk this fascinating tale. I suppose it doesn't really matter in all truth - that such mysteries still exist in the world of Dreamcast only goes to show why I love this system more than any other (even the Jaguar!).

Folklore, or folk fact? Let's find out...

New Dreamcast Multiplayer Shooter [TERMINAL] In Development

March 26, 2016, 7:28 am

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Before you scroll down and view the images in this post, let me assure you that this is a look at an extremely early work in progress being created by a single programmer. Now that discalimer is out of the way, allow me to introduce [TERMINAL], the latest homebrew title to be added to the list of upcoming titles for our favourite wheezing cuboid. [TERMINAL] is the work of Rico Tyrell and is an online multiplayer shooter played from a third person perspective. At present the visuals are very basic, but Rico assures us that the reason for releasing this information is to garner some interest in the fledgling project:

"Currently the game is in pre-production. This is an open source game written using SEGA's Katana SDK rather than KallistiOS, which I am assuming will annoy a lot of people who are homebrew toolchain purists.

As of this writing, the server backend for multiplayer sessions is being written with the short-term goal of getting players connected and moving around on one server by the beginning of April 2016."

 - Rico Tyrell

That thing in the middle is you.

Over the shoulder of the grey cube.

The engine does boast some interesting aspects already, such as the zoom to 'over the shoulder' when aiming down sights for example, and as the game progresses we look forward to seeing the visuals actually take shape. There's a video below of the engine in action, but you may want to mute it. You have been warned!

The purpose of Rico releasing these images and video at such an early stage is really just to garner some interest in the project. We know it's far too early to say when we'll see [TERMINAL] released in a final form, but the game can be downloaded here (choose to log in as a guest) and burned to CD-R using DC2CD in ImgBurn; or alternatively using an emulator such as Reicast.

The file TERMINAL_latest.tar.xz always points to the latest build of the game and if you'd like to know more or offer support for the development, head over to the game's thread over at the Segaxtreme forums.