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Officially Licensed Dreamcast T-shirts Available to Pre-order at Play-Asia.com

January 12, 2017, 7:42 am
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Heads up. Play-Asia.com are taking pre-orders for a range of officially licensed Dreamcast t-shirts now. Expected to ship in February 2017, the t-shirts are manufactured by Japanese clothing and apparel company Cospa so quality is pretty much guaranteed. Made from 100% cotton and coming in either medium, large or extra large (where's the small, guys?!), the t-shirts feature a Dreamcast swirl on the front and a stylised console design on the back. I think you'll agree that they're pretty cool, and for £20 you can't really go wrong. Head to Play-Asia.com for further details.
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In the Line of Fire Kickstarter Cancelled

January 14, 2017, 10:57 am
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In the Line of Fire was possibly the most ambitious Kickstarter we've yet seen for the Dreamcast, with a bespoke 3D engine designed from the ground up for Sega's hardware. Not only this, it wasn't a stretch goal for an existing project. A full-on 3D shooter with tactical gameplay elements and multiplayer options specifically created for the Dreamcast. We covered it several times here at the Junkyard, from the first teaser shots to the Kickstarter launch, and we got to preview an early build, and it looked like such a promising game. Sadly, the project didn't get the backing it deserved on Kickstarter and the team appear to have cancelled the game. An update from Wilson Guerrero of Militia Studios was posted on the project page which reads:

"Hello everyone, first I want to thank you all, you are one amazing and generous group of people. 
Sadly I'm quitting the team right now and the sound designer is gone too so basically there is no team now. Best regards."
- Wilson Guerrero, Militia Studios

It's a real shame because In the Line of Fire represented - to me at least - a move away from the myriad 2D shooters and platformers that have come to the Dreamcast. It represented something of a turning point for crowd-funded games and maybe a glimmer that there was a bright future for Dreamcast indie development - even more so when you consider Militia was looking to release the engine to other developers. The level of detail in the enemy character models, and environment in the stage I got to sample was almost on a par with commercially-related software.
However, the failure of something as impressive as In the Line of Fire to gain backing will no doubt make other potential developers question if the Dreamcast is a financially viable platform to put their games out on. Last year the impressive looking Xenocider from Retro Sumus also failed to hit its target, although that game was was resurrected through pre-orders. There are still plenty of games coming - at least at the time of writing - for the Dreamcast, but that In the Line of Fire was so criminally ignored could potentially have repercussions for future development on the system.
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HDTV Compatible Wireless Dreamcast Gun Enters Production

January 15, 2017, 12:35 pm
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You may remember the LightConn wireless gun we revealed recently. It comes from hardware modder Chris Diaoglou (the man behind the other wireless peripherals currently available for the Dreamcast), and since the last update the device has undergone a rather impressive overhaul. The LightConn uses the same Bluetooth technology as the DreamConn wireless controller and the KeybConn wireless keyboard, and incorporates a pair of virtual VMUs.
Not only this, it works with modern flatscreen TVs through a reverse-engineered Wii controller which has been incorporated into the chassis of the gun, along with a Wii sensor bar which has been adapted to work with the Dreamcast. The best bit is, the new LightConn does away with the visible portion of the Nintendo hardware seen in the prototype and also adds new functionality, such as PC connectivity for save file transfer. New LightConn specs:

  • Two internal virtual VMUs
  • Support for VMU in-game screen indications
  • Support for Rumble Pak
  • PC connectivity
  • Region-Free : Can be used with any game including NTSC "locked" games
  • Support for any TV (including HDTVs)
  • Embedded VMU menu for calibration
  • Auto-reload feature

The new version of the LightConn is totally wireless, works on HD TVs, looks exactly like an official Dreamcast gun...and has a few other features with regards to the VGA compatibility, as Chris helpfully explains:

"As you can see, this particular unit is made from the original Dreamcast light gun. Of course, as this is the final product, you can see some new additions and refinements. These include an ON-OFF switch, power LED at the side of the gun and charging LED, and a charging port on the bottom of the gun's handle. Also, now there is no need for crude extra parts at the front of the gun.

In the prototype version I mentioned that LightConn will be using custom VGA cable.
I reconsidered knowing that this could be quite inconvenient for some users that already have their setups. So as you can see, the base unit now has an extra cable, with a small VGA pass-through adapter. This will be just plugged into the user's existing setup VGA box/cable as an intermediate connection."
- Chris Diaoglou

After the recent cancellations of certain Kickstarter projects through lack of support, it's encouraging that hardware development on the Dreamcast is forging ahead and even outdoing what can be seen on current gen systems. The LightConn represents a leap forward that no other console can boast - a fully functional, wireless light gun that works with flatscreen TVs.
Chris will be offering a modding service so people can send their own guns to him and receive a fully augmented peripheral in return; while those without a gun to supply can purchase from his eBay store in the very near future. I pressed him on pricing and current costs are $135 for the modding service and $185 for the complete package without supplying your own gun. While this may sound high, Chris puts the pricing down to the need to acquire additional parts such as Wii sensors, remotes and the creation of the Bluetooth dongles and passthrough connectors as the reason for this.
I can already see the comments about the price on the LightConn, and I actually thought twice about even writing this article because of it, but for some people the ability to play House of the Dead 2, Death Crimson or Confidential Mission on a brand new HD or 4K television will outweigh the outlay. Just don't shoot the messenger (now that's a pun I can legitimately be proud of).
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Crafti: A Homebrew Minecraft Clone For Dreamcast

January 18, 2017, 11:20 am
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Minecraft. A game which looks so simple on the surface due to its basic geometric visuals and fairly relaxed gameplay, but in reality is actually incredibly complex and even lends itself to being used as an educational tool. Yes, Minecraft is a true cultural phenomenon. It also made its creator disgustingly rich when Microsoft bought the franchise from Markus 'Notch' Persson in 2014 for $2.5 billion, and the game has gone on to become the second best selling game of all time. Not bad, I'm sure you'll agree.
There are ports of Minecraft available for a multitude of different systems and they all offer the similar gameplay and mechanics found in the PC original, and many people have carved out a career simply streaming gameplay online. The power of Minecraft knowns no bounds it seems, and now the game has come to the Dreamcast. Well...sort of. Crafti is a Minecraft clone developed by DCEmulation forum member gameblabla and is now free to download and burn to a CD-R for playing in a Dreamcast. Naturally, that's exactly what I did...

As explained in the original forum post, Crafti for Dreamcast is a port of the original Crafti - a Minecraft clone developed for Texas Instruments TI-Nspire graphic calculators. I downloaded the CDI file, burnt it to a disc and popped it in my Dreamcast, and then spent a good half hour messing about in this wonderful homage to Mojang's world builder.

Controls take a little getting used to, but once sussed Crafti is about as close to the real Minecraft as you're likely to get on a Dreamcast. Movement is handled through the d-pad, looking on the analogue and the face buttons allow you to place or erase blocks in the world. You can also jump and there's an action button for opening doors and pressing switches. Pressing start brings up a block menu and you can assign different materials to your inventory at the bottom of the screen.
As explained in the forum post, there is no music and there are no enemies (so don't go expecting to be chased by a Creeper), but as a proof of concept this is pretty impressive work. I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Minecraft and my experience with the genuine article doesn't really extend beyond the one time I played the Xbox 360 version for about an hour back in around 2013. That said, even with this limited experience I knew what kinds of things I should be able to do, so after 10 minutes playing with Crafti I had already built myself a nice little house, complete with a fireplace and a bookshelf full of leather-bound books. The smell of rich mahogany also wafted through the structure. Apologies for the pixellated screenshots here - the game wouldn't work properly on my Elgato so I was forced to use an S-Video capture thing and the image quality isn't the best.
Interestingly, another user of the DCEmulation forum, bogglez offers some tips on how gameblabla could improve the frame rate and performance of Crafti for Dreamcast...but as a little curio I think it is perfectly acceptable in its current form. There are numerous different block types, including familiar types like water, lava and even explosives and switches etc. I managed to make a house with a roof and a door so who knows what else is possible in this fantastic little game?

Below you'll find a short and sweet video of some gameplay recorded from my Dreamcast, using perhaps the shortest capture device in the known galaxy. My Elgato wouldn't work so I had to rely on the August USB capture dongle once again. Still, it's better than nothing and gives you an idea of how Crafti runs.


For further info and to grab the CDI file yourself, head over to the DCEmulation forum here. Also, thanks to bogglez himself for giving me the heads up on this.
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A Quick Look At Headhunter

January 21, 2017, 11:03 am
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You are Jack Wade. You were once the ACN's top Headhunter, rounding up the most fearsome criminals on the mean streets of near-future California and bringing organised crime to its knees. However, something went horribly wrong. Waking up in an operating theatre with no memory of who you are or how you got there, you break out of the restraints and hazily escape from the mysterious facility before collapsing in an alleyway.

Once again being brought around in a hospital, you learn of your past glories as the most feared Headhunter around - a type of government funded bounty hunter - the death of your boss and the rise of crime in your absence. You're an angry man with a beard, you want answers, and you want your memory back...but first you need to re-enrol as a freelance Headhunter, get your license, your gun and your motorbike. Somebody will pay for this, but who and why? That's down to you, Wade.
Headhunter is one of the oddest games on the Dreamcast. I don't mean that in a derogatory way - I mean it from a totally bemused standpoint. That's because it is easily one of the best titles ever released for Sega's machine, but due to the incredibly late launch in November 2001 Headhunter was only given a PAL release. It sits squarely amongst games like Evil Twin and Stunt GP that were fantastic games in their own right, but for mainly financial reasons never made the leap across the pond to the United States or Japan.

Amuze, the Sweden-based developer of Headhunter only ever made two games - Headhunter (and the later PlayStation 2 port) and the PlayStation 2/Xbox sequel Headhunter: Redemption - but it's clear from the quality seeping from every pore of Jack Wade's adventure that the development team had a real grasp of the Dreamcast hardware.

Everything about this game just exudes class; from the excellent visuals, to the well-scripted cut scenes to the outstanding musical score composed by none other than Richard 'MSR' Jacques himself (at Abbey Road Studios, no less), everything about Headhunter is epic. And, as stated, due to the exceedingly late release Headhunter represented something of a last hurrah for the Dreamcast...which actually adds a tinge of sadness to the whole affair. If a game of this quality appeared just as the console was getting into its stride, then who knows quite where future Dreamcast games could have gone in terms of visuals and storytelling? There's so much to shout about with Headhunter and hopefully this article will allow those who never got the chance to sample its delights to learn of a game that is rarely mentioned, even though it's one of the Dreamcast's finest AAA releases.
Headhunter is a 3D, semi-free roaming action-adventure with stealth and puzzle elements. On top of this, it has definite science fiction overtones with a near-future setting. The game proper is interspersed with newsflash FMV sequences that not only progress the story by reporting on events that your were responsible for, but also do a great job of building a better picture of the overall world in which the game is set. While looking similar to the present day, a fascist regime controls the government and the media is heavily censored. Sinister firms peddle their genetically modified foods and drinks and the public lap them up, and biotech firms advertise enhancements for the human body akin to those seen in Deus Ex.

Big business rules everything, and the biggest and baddest of these big businesses is the ACN - the Anti-Crime Network. In this vision of the future, criminals are apprehended by ACN Headhunters and their organs are removed as punishment and donated to law-abiding citizens to prolong their law-abiding lives. As an ACN Headhunter, Jack Wade is the top dog, but then he goes missing and the criminal underworld is the key suspect. On top of this, the ACN founder is murdered at his desk. Now it's up to you to find out just what the hell is going on, get your identity back and turn up the heat on the criminals running the show from behind the scenes.
You start the game with no memory and all of your licenses revoked, so you need to regain your Headhunter status by completing various virtual reality training missions through a system called LEILA. LEILA - the Law Enforcement Intelligence and License Approval unit - is where you need to go in order to enrol on the various courses and you are given certain tasks to complete within a time limit. These are mainly based on stealth and shooting but are occasionally driving based (more on this later), and once you complete all of the tasks in a certain stream you are given access to a new licence and the weaponry that comes with that level of clearance.

The LEILA missions can be a bit of a pain and are very reminiscent of the Metal Gear Solid VR missions, but they need to be completed in order to unlock higher licenses and weapons to progress the main story. The main game is very much a cops and robbers style yarn, with Jack Wade apprehending various criminals and gathering information about why he was kidnapped, who wiped his memory (and why) and who killed the head of the ACN. You travel around the city on a motorbike, and while these free-roam sections aren't especially interesting by today's standards, back in 2001 they were something of a novelty.
There are plenty of different districts of the fictional city to explore and there's a lot of traffic driving around but on the whole the environment isn't especially rich in detail. However, as a way to space out the main points of interest and missions, the motorbike bits are perfectly fine (and were pretty impressive back in the day). The main meat of Headhunter is played from a third person perspective and sees you controlling Jack Wade in some truly amazing 3D environments, taking cover and engaging in firefights with enemies, collecting health packs and operating doors and solving puzzles.

I mentioned Metal Gear Solid earlier and it's clear to see the influences in Headhunter. Not only with the stealth-based gameplay and the cover shooting mechanics, but also in things like the Casio communicator scenes where other characters will dial in to Jack with hints and mission objectives. It's all a bit too similar to the Codex sections from Metal Gear Solid, but as the old saying goes: imitation is the best form of flattery. Indeed, according to this 2004 interview with Eurogamer, Headhunter creative director John Kroknes took lots of inspiration from the 1980s output of Hollywood director Paul Verhoeven when creating Headhunter, and this is clear to see.
Labelling Headhunter as a Metal Gear Solid clone isn't especially fair (or true) though, as anyone who has played the game will attest that it is so much more than a stealth-based shooter. The sheer number of puzzles is bewildering and the similarities to stuff like Resident Evil is apparent from the off. You need to pick up objects from within the environment and examine them for clues, you need to read documents in order to get codes for doors and locked boxes, and you need to move boxes and climb on them in order to collect items such as grenades and health packs.

Headhunter isn't just an homage to the best 80s action films, it's also an homage to the best puzzle games and it really isn't afraid to show it. On top of this, the cut scenes (while looking a bit ropey by modern standards) are full of wry humour and on more than one occasion I found myself smirking at interactions between Jack and other characters, if only because of their outrageous tongue-in-cheek cheese factor. Jack Wade could quite easily be a character played by Kurt Russell or Chuck Norris, and the ease with which he belittles his main headhunting rival Hank Redwood borders on the comedic at times.
Sometimes, Headhunter gets a little irksome due to the difficulty level and Jack's inability to take much damage (and his aiming is terrible), but this is easily offset by the way in which any really tough firefight can be won with a little bit of cunning and cover firing; and most of the puzzles, while occasionally taxing, are fairly logical in design. The game controls about as well as you could expect a game without dual analogue controls to, although at first the number of actions and manoeuvres at Jack's disposal can seem a little overwhelming - not least when you're being fired at from multiple angles. However, once learned you'll find yourself ducking behind boxes and popping out to take shots, rolling to safety and setting proximity mines as if you were a natural born commando.
Visually, Headhunter is easily one of the best looking games on the Dreamcast. The open world sections aren't overly impressive when compared to other open worlds seen in stuff like Crazy Taxi et al, but it's when you enter the interiors that everything takes on a whole new level of detail. While the camera sometimes fixes into the corner of a room or location to give a Resident Evil or Silent Hill style view, the environments are all modelled in 3D and you can still activate the 'over the shoulder' camera no matter where you are. Some of these scenes look pre-rendered such are their quality but it's when you realise that you can still switch to an over the shoulder view that you realise everything is fully rendered with polygons. Quite simply, Headhunter looks stunning. The lighting, the incidental effects (rats scurrying around, dust motes dancing in light beams, the real time shadows and reflections) are fantastic.
My favourite part of the early game is the rooftop boss battle, with rain pouring and lightning crackling across the sky. Jack and his adversary are sopping wet, with rain bouncing off them and real time refections glistening in the puddles. It looks positively stunning and you have to remind yourself that you're looking at a Dreamcast game. Equally impressive is the musical score. Handled by Richard Jaques - the same genius behind the Metropolis Street Racer soundtrack (and countless other Sega soundtracks), the orchestral score in Headhunter is nothing short of filmic in its scope and bombast. From slow tension building arrangements to full on action sequences, everything in Headhunter - everything - sounds utterly fantastic. It's just a crime that Dreamcast owners in Japan and the US never really got the chance to appreciate either the visual or aural delights of Amuze's stellar action game.
You can probably tell that I really like Headhunter - and you'd be right. It does get very tough as you progress (don't even mention the boss fight in the bank!), but it's worth persevering with. The game is split across two disks and is chock full of over the top cut scenes, parody advertising for in-game products and 'so bad they're good' news broadcasts. The story is great, the voice acting is perfect and the graphics, control and sound are all top drawer. If you don't live in a PAL territory and you're looking for something new to play on your Dreamcast, I would highly recommend Headhunter. Not only is it a brilliant, brilliant adventure, but it also represents a glimpse at just how amazing late-era Dreamcast games could get.
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DreamPod - Episode 46 Featuring Dreamcast Hub

January 23, 2017, 5:19 pm
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[iTunes][Stitcher][Buzzsprout][UK Podcast Directory][YouTube]

Music in this episode comes from Wind & Water, MSR, Sturmwind and the live Shenmue orchestra. The interview about Blue Stinger and Illbleed is here at Gamasutra and it's pretty heart-wrenching so be warned if you read the whole thing (I doubt anyone will, but it's worth it). You are the people we do this for, so thanks for listening. If you have any feedback please don't hesitate to leave it in the comments or at the Facebook group - we read them all. You can find our guest host Stephen Robinson at the Facebook group Dreamcast Hub.

Feel free to leave a review on iTunes and if you want to chuck us your change on Patreon we're here.
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A Quick Look At The Dreamcast Twin Stick Controller

January 25, 2017, 12:44 pm
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The Dreamcast's peripheral lineup offers plenty of oddities for the discerning collector to pore over. From the karaoke unit and maracas, to the fishing rod and the Dreameye there's something for everyone. One peripheral we've never really looked at in any real depth here at the Junkyard is the Dreamcast Twin Stick, an odd looking beast of a controller that always peaks the curiosity of the public whenever we wheel it out at live events and expos. The Twin Stick was never released outside of its native Japan, although that doesn't stop it being compatible with both NTSC-U and PAL Dreamcast systems, but the incredibly small library of games that officially make use of it renders the Twin Stick something of a luxury.
Twinned with the relative high price these controllers command in the current climate, the Twin Stick is a device that still enjoys something of an enigmatic air. Like the Arcade Stick controller, the Twin Stick is one of those peripherals that greatly enhances the experience of playing games that make use of it, but outside that small selection is pretty redundant simply because it it's fairly unorthodox design. Let's take a more detailed look at the hardware itself, and some of the games that make use of the Twin Stick before investigating whether or not this is something you should consider adding to your collection...


The Hardware
The Twin Stick, like the Arcade Stick is a fairly robust and well-constructed peripheral. The base is made from metal, which gives it a decent feel of weight and quality. The bottom section is made from two different tones of grey plastic, as are the actual sticks themselves. The sticks themselves have 8 directions of travel and emit the same reassuring click of a micro switch that the Arcade Stick does when in operation. However, because there are two of them...you get twice the fun and twice the clicks! The only other buttons on the controller are the triggers on the from of the sticks, the buttons on top of the sticks and the pause and start buttons on the base. This in itself it a bit of a strange aspect of the Twin Stick when you think about it - why does it need both a start and pause button? Surely they would both be start? Hmm.
Naturally, there's also a slot for a VMU and the Dreamcast recognises the Twin Stick in much the same way it does the Arcade Stick. For example, in the Dreamcast's main menu/dashboard the left stick can be used for navigation and the right trigger is the A button, while the button on top of the right stick acts as the B button, cancelling out of menus and what not. There's little else to say about the physical aesthetics of the Twin Stick, so here are some more lovely pictures - please ignore the tea and coffee rings on my table - I couldn't be bothered to wipe it down before taking the pictures. Because I'm a lazy git.
The Software
Officially, the Twin Stick only supports one game - Cyber Troopers Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram. By 'officially,' I mean that that is the only game that was ever promoted as being compatible with the Twin Stick and on top of this the peripheral was only released in Japan. This is especially odd because Virtual On was given a US release so one would be forgiven for thinking a North American release for the peripheral would follow...but it didn't.

Stranger still, Virtual On for the Dreamcast didn't even get a PAL release, even though the Saturn game did and while I'm not 100% certain, I'm pretty sure that the Dreamcast did better in PAL territories than the Saturn did sales-wise. Whatever the reasons for Sega's decision not to release the Twin Stick in the US or anything to do with Dreamcast Virtual On in PAL territories, the fact remains that in Japan the controller was only ever depicted as being for use with Virtual On. However, we now know that there are a couple of other games which will actually recognise the Twin Stick and these are discussed below.
Before we get to them though, I just wanted to express my disappointment at some startlingly obvious games that would be amazing with the Twin Stick, but for whatever reason just will not even register that the thing is plugged in to the Dreamcast console. Games like Star Lancer and Bang! Gunship Elite for example. First person space based shooters would be perfect for a contraption such as the Twin Stick but it's as if the software doesn't even realise there's a controller plugged in. I might sound like a bit of a moron by writing this, but I always just assumed that with special controllers, it was simply a case of mapping standard controller button presses to a new form factor, so regardless of what the controller physically looked like, the Dreamcast 'saw' the peripheral as a standard controller and the inputs where just accepted as 'button A' or 'right trigger,' even though you might be standing on a dance mat or waggling a fishing rod. Does that make sense?

It appears this isn't the case with the Twin Stick though, as plugging it in doesn't even register with most games, and invariably a 'please insert controller' message pops up on the screen. Some other games I would have liked to have seen playable with the Twin Stick (but aren't) include: (the aforementioned) Star Lancer, Bang! Gunship Elite, AeroWings and AeroWings 2 (although they can be played with the flight stick from Ascii). It's not all bad though, because there are a ton of other games I tried that do indeed work just fine with the Twin Stick - some of them exceptionally well.
I didn't go through my entire catalogue of games to see which games work and which didn't, as that would be madness and would mean I'd be writing this article for the best part of a week. Because I have a job and a life outside of Dreamcast nonsense I decided that simply wasn't going to happen. However, I did quickly blast through a select few that I thought might work and some I thought might be a good (albeit novelty) fit for the Twin Stick. Some games do indeed work better than others and these are the ones I found that work very well:

Games that work
Virtual On (obviously)
Outtrigger
Frame Gride
Virtua Tennis
Rush Rush Rally Racing
Sega Rally 2
Soul Calibur
Rez

I did try Half-Life with it too, as I'd heard that worked, but I could only get the controls to register the forward/backwards and strafing motions so it's hardly playable. I'm sure I read somewhere that Quake III: Arena works quite well too, but I didn't try it. I also made a short video showing some of the above games in action, but seeing as I used the little flatscreen TV on my desk to record it out of convenience, the aspect ratio is set to 16:9 on the screen and I literally cannot be arsed with the comments that will undoubtedly zero in on that one tiny thing. Maybe I'll re-record it at some point in the future on my 4:3 CRT. But I probably won't. Gotta love the internet!
Anyway, I'm sure there are other games that use the Twin Stick just as well as those up there - if you know of more then please add them in the comments section and I'll update the article list as and when. This is 'A Quick Look At...' after all.
Further reading
Be sure to familiarise yourself with some other Dreamcast peripherals and add-ons by following the links to previous articles of varying quality below:

Dreamcast Race Controller
Dreamcast Karaoke Unit
Dreamcast Fishing Rod
Dream Trance
DreamConn
LightConn
Dreameye
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Dreamcast Shmup Ghost Blade Heading To Steam, PS4, Xbox One & Wii U

January 26, 2017, 1:28 am
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Hucast's Ghost Blade hit the Dreamcast in 2015 and was met with some fairly mixed reviews. Personally, I quite enjoyed the simplistic shooting action; while others derided the lack of options and fairly easy difficulty level. Until now, the only way to play Ghost Blade has been on Sega's final system but now the game is heading to current gen consoles with a new lick of HD paint. Here's the teaser trailer:


Slated for digital release on February 28th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam and Wii U, Ghost Blade HD promises new visuals, online leader boards and two player modes. Apart from the new visuals and artwork though, the only other new feature I can see is the addition of trophies and achievements. That said, if you never played the original Dreamcast version the $9.99 price tag might be enough to convince you to give Ghost Blade a whirl.
Did you play the original Ghost Blade? Does a new version with HD graphics and new features interest you? Let us know in the comments!

Be sure to keep an eye on Hucast's dedicated Ghost Blade website for updates.
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Unsung Dreamcast Heroes: Captain Onishima

January 27, 2017, 12:53 pm
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In the first of a new series here at The Dreamcast Junkyard, we thought it was about time we took a deeper, more humanistic look at some of the unsung and lesser celebrated players in the great library of Dreamcast-related characters and creations. The personas we all know, but who we don't necessarily love. The title 'Unsung Dreamcast Heroes' is a bit of a misnomer because it won't exclusively feature protagonists - indeed, this inaugural instalment actually profiles an antagonist of sorts - but hopefully we'll do it justice by bringing some of the lesser-known but equally important supporting cast into the spotlight. Right then - on with the show!
Jet Set Radio is easily one of the Dreamcast's most iconic titles. The premise is a relatively simple one, involving gangs of youths on motorised roller blades tagging turf and trying to evade the cops in the process. However, the cel-shaded visuals mask a fairly deep and involving yarn in which some pretty sobering themes are covered. These include the corporate censorship of freedom of expression; and an almost Orwellian vision of a near-future dystopia where everything seems fine on the surface, but once the scab of uniformity is lifted a whole underclass of festering all-out gangland warfare is revealed. Maybe I'm reading way, way too far between the lines when it comes to Smilebit's seminal skate and graffiti 'em up, but the fact remains that the city of Milwaukee tried to get the game banned back in 2000 due to the negative connotations of spray painting gang tags on urban street furniture. This is all academic in the grand scheme of this article though. The reason I'm writing all of this is because we need to examine one central character in particular...

Captain Onishima
Now, the popularity of Jet Set Radio has ballooned in recent times, and not least because of the number of people on Twitter calling for a HD remake or current-gen sequel. There actually is a HD remake for various systems like the PS Vita and PS3, but the overarching allure of Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio, if you're in the United States - quick fact, it's actually called Jet Grind in the US because of a band called Jet Set Satellite) is more down to the varied cast of cool as fuck protagonists and their spiritual leader Professor K, than anything else. Yes, the adolescent pranks and sick skating skillz of the likes of Gum, Beat and Tab are by far the most enticing thing about JSR. Furthermore, the ongoing turf war with the Poison Jam and Noise Tanks gangs is more than enough to make anyone want to get involved in this whole neon-hued, futuristic romp through Tokyo-To.
Naturally, the soundtrack that this whole saga is played out to creates a rich tapestry of memorable freeze frames in the mind: doing anti-gravity tricks in a storm drain while Hideki Naganuma and Richard Jacques' finest mixes blast through the speakers would leave an indelible mark on anyone's mind, but let's turn our attention to the main antagonist in Jet Set Radio. A man so hell-bent on stopping this immature masquerade that he'll revert to lethal measures. The man at the centre of the whole operation and tasked with ridding Tokyo-To of the menace of street gangs and graffiti and banging pirate radio choons once and for all - at the tax payer's expense, I might add. One Captain Onishima.
The manual of the PAL version of Jet Set Radio says this of Captain Onishima:

Height: 5ft. Shorty. With a five o' clock shadow, dirty hair and a creased suit, this joker's obviously been watching too many 1970's police shows. Watch out when he loses it 'cause he'll start shooting rubber bullets. His catchphrase is "I'm the judge and jury and I'm gonna send you down the river." Maybe the reason he hates young people so much is because of some past trauma.

So a fairly rudimentary introduction, then. The first time you see Onishima in Jet Set Radio is when he orders his squad of rank and file Tokyo-To officers in to apprehend you after a certain amount of time has ticked down in whichever level you happen to be covering with paint. He is the archetypal baddie, with his own brand of justice and an army of henchmen (aka the Tokyo-To police department) at his disposal. Later in the game, Captain Onishima reverts to his trusty side arm in an attempt to bring you down, but also calls in heavy ordnance in the form of police helicopters and armoured vehicles. But - and this is a big but - is he actually the bad guy here?
Nothing is ever really given away about Onishima's family life. Does he have a wife or kids? What's his drive for bringing down the GGs and the Noise Tanks? Does he play golf at the weekends at a luxury club outside Tokyo-To with the rich and famous (like Professor K)? Here's another theory: he's a cop. A salt of the earth cop who rose through the ranks to serve his beloved home town. He rose through the ranks, walking the beat and busting punks and now he's the Captain of the force in a fairly nice and well kept city.

Look at it from the point of view of any of the citizens who happen to inhabit Tokyo-To. A city with a wealth of public transport options, cycle lanes, clean pavements (sidewalks), a decent sanitation system and a working train network. Tokyo-To looks, for all intents and purposes like a pretty decent place to live. The only real criminals are a bunch of kids dressed in stupid outfits who like to dance on rooftops and spray paint stuff, for God's sake. The criminals in Jet Set Radio are the characters you play as. Gum and Beat and their ring leader Professor K...they are the real criminals here. As they blast around childrens' play areas and busy shopping districts, trying to evade the choking clouds of CS gas they bring with them...what are the bystanders doing? Just going about their daily business.
Picture the scene. You're just buying some mangoes from a market stall and then BAM! a prick on roller blades goes flying past, knocking over bikes, chinning your friend and stopping traffic, with 20 coppers running after him and then some prick with a haircut the 80s want back is firing his Smith & Wesson all over the place. Meanwhile, some random cretin in a pink leotard is dancing on a rooftop thinking they're Carlito Brigante because they spray-painted a love heart on the side of a bus (that incidentally, was full of well-behaved kids on their way to a nice, well-funded and respected school). It's not right mate - this is Tokyo-To, not Salford.

Onishima isn't flashy. He isn't suave. His physical appearance of unshaven and greasy-haired is a staple of down-and-out gumshoes like Columbo. He is the embodiment of every stereotypical superior in ever cop show you've ever seen. The only stereotype not layed on him is that he's black...but let's not get into that shite. But the fact remains that he continues to chase these punks because he believes that what they are doing is wrong. Graffiti is a legitimate form of art and can be spectacularly beautiful and awe inspiring, but Onishima is doing his job. Plain and simple.
In closing, I'd like to put forward a hypothesis. In Jet Set Radio, the real hero is Captain Onishima. He is standing up for the rights of the people of Tokyo-To. He wants to maintain order because that's what he is paid to do. There is no murder or theft in Tokyo-To, there is just a pirate radio station and a group of kids who think defacing public property is a right...and it simply won't stand. Not on Onishima's watch, anyway.
He is painted as a villain in Jet Set Radio, but what do we actually know about Onishima other than his job title? Not much. But what we do know is that he will protect and serve his public and use excessive force with extreme prejudice. Sleep tight Tokyo-To, Captain Onishima has your back.
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Dreamcast On The Go With PlayStation Vita

January 30, 2017, 6:55 am
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The PlayStation Vita is quite easily one of my favourite handheld systems. I've owned plenty of other portable gaming devices - and still do - but for me the PS Vita blends console-quality gaming with the types of games you'd expect on a handheld. Currently in my collection I have an Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket, Nintendo DS, Game Gear, PSP Go, Gameboy Micro and Gameboy Pocket. I appreciate them all, but not as much as the Vita. I wouldn't go as far as saying it is my all time favourite pocket-sized gaming device, for that title would undoubtedly go the the Gameboy Advance SP AGS 101 (the one with the sexy backlit screen), but it is definitely up there at the top of the pile.
Regardless of the way Sony has handled the business side of things when it comes to the PS Vita, the fact remains that it is a great bit of gaming tech and a worthy successor to the PSP in terms of features and technology. Much like the Dreamcast with Sega, the PS Vita does represent something of a missed opportunity for Sony as there are so many things that could have been done with the hardware; but ultimatley the system is now being kept alive by third parties and indie devs. Now, you'd be forgiven for asking yourself why the hell I'm praising the Vita on a Dreamcast site? This is The Dreamcast Junkyard, not The Vita Lounge dammit!

Calm down, dear - I'll tell you for why. But before I do, let me just say that after having more than a passing interest in the Dreamcast for the best part of 20 years, I'm well aware of actual portable Dreamcasts. Oh, and Treamcasts. Now that's out of the way, on with the show...!

See, the other day I was scrolling through my downloads list (for those not familiar with the PlayStation set up, anything you buy or download previously is stored in your cloud-based library) and one after the other I saw games that I already own on the Dreamcast and have either been ported to the Vita, or which can be played on the Vita through PSP emulation/backwards compatibility. Naturally, I thought I'd bash out a quick article listing the games you can find on both systems, as I figured it might be of some use to people who may want to experience said games but either cannot find them for the Dreamcast or...simply cannot afford to buy them in this current climate of extortionately expensive retro games.

Incidentally, Sega has offered far more in the way of classic game support to Nintendo's 3DS than the PS Vita, what with the awesome Sega 3D Classics compendiums and all, but with regards to actual titles that you can also play on a Dreamcast...well the Vita has many more. And while they may not be necessarily based on Dreamcast code, they're basically the same games in most cases. So, with this in mind which Dreamcast games, or those with Dreamcast derivatives can you expect to find on your trusty old PlayStation Vita? Below you'll find a little list, along with some observations on the conversions and comparisons to the Dreamcast originals.
Jet Set Radio
The Vita port of Jet Set Radio was released in late 2012 and is pretty much identical to the original Dreamcast version. All of the same stages and music are present, but there are some noticeable improvements. These come in the form of HD widescreen visuals and the use of that second analogue stick to position the camera. The game also came to other platforms of the era, such as the PS3 and the Xbox 360, as well as other portable devices that ran iOS and Android.
The main bonuses with the Vita version though, are the physical controls and that lovely screen. The Vita port was handled by Blit Software (now BlitWorks), who were previously responsible for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Steam port of Sonic CD and they have since gone on to do some pretty stellar work on other systems as a professional porting studio.
As with the other HD remasters, the Vita game features Trophies and online leaderboards, and the ability to move the camera with the second stick really does enhance the game more than you'd think. While you can get a version of Jet Set Radio for Gameboy Advance, this is by far the best way to play Smilebit's seminal graffiti 'em up while you wait for a bus or during the commute.
Crazy Taxi 1 & 2
Crazy Taxi Fare Wars came to the PSP in 2007 and was developed by Sniper Studios, a short-lived developer made up of ex-Electronic Arts and Sega staff, according to the Wikipedia entry. Sniper Studios no longer exists and this curious outfit only have the one credit to their name...which is Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars. Fare Wars is a double game pack comprising the first two Crazy Taxi games, but not the third...which may have been down to a licensing issue with Microsoft as Crazy Taxi 3 was an Xbox exclusive on consoles.
What you get with Fare Wars is a pretty bare bones two-in-one pack that is everything you would expect to find in the first two games from Sega's beloved cabbie series, but with a few notable omissions. First, the soundtrack doesn't feature the Offspring or Bad Religion. Second, pretty much all of the licensed stores and brands have been taken out of the environments. This doesn't really take anything away from the experience as a whole as Crazy Taxi is Crazy Taxi. The only mark against Fare Wars' good name is that both of the games in this package are pretty rough around the edges and do feature some pretty noticeable pop-in and slowdown.
Obviously, this being a PSP game at heart you can almost forgive it for the odd stutter here and there, and the game does have a couple of visual effects not present in the Dreamcast originals, such as motion blur. There's also a new multiplayer feature in both games, where you can try your luck at getting a high score before passing the system to a friend so they can have a crack, and an ad-hoc online mode is located in the same menu but it doesn't connect using a Vita (and probably wouldn't using a PSP either, in this day and age).
Power Stone 1 & 2
Another PSP game masquerading on the Vita, Capcom's Power Stone Collection fares slightly better than Fare Wars in that both of the games it contains are pretty much identical to the originals. There is no slowdown and the graphics are pretty faithful and on top of this it even features the VMU mini games as extras. Initially, only Falcon's Aerial Adventure is available but with continued play in the main Power Stone games you can unlock others. Naturally, the GUI isn't a VMU (it looks more like a Game & Watch), but it does a pretty good job of emulating the authentic LCD experience of the humble VMU. A VMU being emulated on a PSP being emulated on a Vita. Now there's a thing.
Unlike the two previous games listed here so far, Power Stone Collection was handled in-house by Capcom and both games in the package do have some minor additional enhancements. Naturally, being on the sharp Vita screen the game looks pretty good - easily as good as how Power Stone looks on a Dreamcast through via on a proper CRT computer monitor. There are additional viewing options to cater for the 16:9 display on the PSP and Vita, so you can switch between wide, stretch and 4:3 options should you so desire. Obviously, with the handheld nature of the hardware, multiplayer is limited to online (which again is pretty redundant) but it's still admirable that Capcom included 2 player online play in Power Stone and full on 4 player battles in Power Stone 2.
One of the main selling points of the franchise was the ability to play with friends so the fact that the online functionality was included as a priority is laudable. I did try it out as I was writing this article, but alas nobody was online to play with. In a nutshell, if you can't find or can't stretch to buying either of the Power Stone games and want to check them out then this PSP collection running on a Vita is a perfect way to get involved (albeit in purely single player mode...unless anyone wants to arrange a match?!). Music and sound effects are all pretty faithful to the originals and the gameplay - even against CPU opposition - is as fun and frantic as it ever was. Power Stone Collection is a title every Vita or PSP owner should seek out.
The Last Blade 2
SNK's The Last Blade 2 is widely regarded as one of the finest 2D fighters on the Dreamcast, and with good reason. Set in feudal Japan, the game's combat leans more towards precise weapon-based techniques and is a far more skilful experience than many a 2D brawler. Indeed, upon first sampling The Last Blade 2 (on the Neo-Geo AES, no less), I couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed by just how uncompromising the fighting mechanics were. That said, after a good while with the Dreamcast game I found my rhythm and The Last Blade 2 revealed its delights as one of the finest one-on-one fighters not just on the Dreamcast, but to ever grace a cartridge or optical media.
Being a digital download, that accolade can now be extended to hard drives and Memory Stick Duos as The Last Blade 2 on Vita is a cross-buy title for both Sony's handheld and the PlayStation 4. As a true remaster, The Last Blade 2 is hard to fault. It brings with it everything that the Dreamcast version had but bolsters it with tonnes of extra content and upgraded visuals. If you're a veteran LB2 player then you'll feel right at home with the new port - all of the music and cutscenes are present and correct and the artwork, character sprites and stage backgrounds have never looked better.
Fear that the Vita's controls might not be up to scratch are allayed pretty early on - every move I tried to execute with the d-pad was initiated without issue (and the same can be said of Garou, below). As far as extras go, there are the usual online multiplayer modes (which are cross-play on both Vita and PS4 as far as I know), ranking modes and the obligatory Trophies. On top of these, there are lots of display options to tinker with, such as the ability to add scan lines and filters, the aspect ratios can be altered and you can even unlock hidden characters by following the hints and codes given to you if  you hit the select button during the character select screens. Overall, The Last blade 2 on Vita is a stunning update to an already stellar 2D fighter and really is a showcase of how older games should be repackaged for a new audience. Everything from the menu screens to the options to the controls - I honestly cannot fault. And this (whisper it) is coming from someone who isn't really a massive fan of 2D fighters, much less an expert at them.
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
As with The Last Blade 2, Garou: Mark of the Wolves is remaster of sorts for both the PS Vita and PlayStation 4 and has pretty much the same going for it as the other SNK fighter mentioned above. Garou (or Fatal Fury in the US) is another Dreamcast brawler that pushed the envelope for how good these types of games could get on home consoles. The music is outstanding and the artwork is the typical SNK mastery. It has a truly awesome cast of characters and some fantastic locations in which to put fists and feet on a direct collision course with someone's chin. Between Garou and The Last Blade, you really do have two of the best 2D fighting games ever created.
The one stand out aspect that - for me at least - gives Garou the edge over The Last Blade though, is the unbelievable hand drawn animation. Quite simply, this represents the pinnacle of animation for an SNK game - certainly that I've seen anyway. If I'm wrong, I'm sure I'll be corrected but damn - Garou looks like a cartoon at times. The silky-smooth way in which costumes billow in the wind and lithe bodies roll with every punch and kick - it needs to be seen to be fully appreciated and here on the Vita's gorgeous little screen everything about Garou's visuals just pops.
Naturally, it plays a mean game too - in a very similar style to The King of Fighters series which it is kinda based. Again, I'm not an expert on these matters - just a layman saying it how I see it so apologies to the hardcore fighting contingent out there who may be spitting cornflakes all over their phone/laptop/486 PC screens as they read this waffle. It has all of the same visual enhancement options as The Last Blade 2 (scan lines, filters etc) and is just full of unlockable content and oozes hallmark SNK style. Garou: Mark of the Wolves is a stunning game whichever platform you play it on, and it's no different on the Vita. A fitting way to mark the 25th anniversary of the franchise.

Dragon's Crown
OK, so I'm taking liberties now with Dragon's Crown but there's a couple of interesting points when it comes to Vanillaware's medieval phantasy beat 'em up. First and foremost, while it categorically isn't a game you can (or ever could) play on a Dreamcast, Dragon's Crown started life as an intended Dreamcast game. There is plenty of documentation to back this up over at Unseen64, and the Wikipedia entry on Dragon's Crown also has some intriguing information on the early roots of this fine Guardian Heroes-style side-scroller.
The other interesting point is that for some reason, the game was pulled from the European PlayStation Store back in June 2016. According to this Eurogamer article the game was going to be reinstated, but as of January 2017 Dragon's Crown has still not reappeared, so the only way you can get it if you're in Europe is if you purchased it before it vanished and can still access the download from your library. Very strange.

PlayStation Classics
Of course, the PS Vita and the PSP before it both have the ability to play emulated original PlayStation games, many of which also appeared on the Dreamcast. Naturally, the Dreamcast versions of these titles were enhanced in various ways due to the Sega system's vastly superior specifications. However, in the name of completeness I thought it should also be noted that the following games are all available through the PlayStation Store and can also be found on the Dreamcast: Rayman 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, several Guilty Gear games, Fighting Force 2, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, and Tomb Raider: Chronicles.

Of course, if you want to get technical you could say that any PS1 game that also appeared on Dreamcast can be played on a PSP if it is cracked and has the right firmware installed...but for the sake of consistency and not getting thrown into the black hole of Calcutta, we'll just keep it to 'official' titles available through 'legal' channels.
Once again, let me assure you that I am fully aware that the PlayStation Vita is not really a portable Dreamcast, I just thought it was worth listing the various games that are available on both Vita and Dreamcast in case you fancied taking a few games with roots on the Sega platform with you on a long, boring train journey. Obviously, there are actual portable Dreamcasts out there (check out Ben Heck's awesome video series on the subject here, and the DreamTrooper video here), but these aren't really within reach of the general consumer. The Vita on the other hand, totally is.
There are other systems that have far more Dreamcast ports than the Vita of course. The PlayStation 2 is one such system, for example. But is it portable? Not really. Ultimately, the point of all this is that I love the Vita and I personally believe that if you own one, the titles detailed above are well worth seeking out if you're also a Dreamcast fan.
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Nonsensical Dreamcast Shirts Now Available At Urban Outfitters

February 2, 2017, 5:45 am
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I really don't know where to begin with this. I started seeing these long-sleeved pullovers popping up on eBay several years ago, and I thought they looked awful. The thin, cheaply made material and the garish screen-printed (nonsensical) decal featuring a PAL Dreamcast swirl with a load of Japanese text just turned me off. I noted that the same sellers were also listing similar Sega Saturn, N64 and PlayStation-branded shirts, and various other items of apparel with console logos all over them. Back then, they were on sale for around £10 each if memory serves. Personally, I thought they looked a bit shit so didn't even bother entertaining the idea of buying one.
Photo credit: Jan Swidan
In the intervening years, it appears that someone has tapped up Sega Europe, acquired official licensing and now these dreadful garments have found their way onto the racks of high street fashion outlet Urban Outfitters. Several people on Twitter have asked me if I'd seen these shirts and so I thought I'd write this article to say that yes, I have seen them. Yes, I saw them years ago on eBay. I thought they looked shit in 2015 and I still think they look shit now - even more so because they now cost £35.

Why is there a PAL swirl with Japanese text? (incidentally, the text on the arm simply says "Game"). It makes no sense! They are clearly the work of someone who thought they could knock up a quick design and make a fast buck with zero research. The slowest of slow claps for both Urban Outfitters and whoever it was at Sega Europe who approved this tat.
The original design
I guess the lowest common denominator here is that 'retro' sells. It doesn't even have to be tasteful or accurate: you could print a Dreamcast swirl on a dog turd these days and someone would buy it. Anyway, this is just my opinion and there's also a PlayStation design available too, if that's your bag. Or you could spend £20 buying a decent-looking alternative with accurate region-specific colouring from Play-Asia.
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The Official Sega Dreamcast EU Service Manual

February 3, 2017, 3:16 am
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Look, I'm not going to pretend this will interest everyone who stumbles across this hallowed repository of Dreamcast-related guff. We take the rough with the smooth here, as part of our service-level agreement with nobody in particular. So for every amazing escapade though the neon-hued worlds of our favourite Dreamcast games, equilibrium must be restored with a fairly mundane trip through the pages of a Dreamcast service manual. I don't make the rules - I merely enforce them. So with that said, allow me to present...the official Sega Dreamcast EU service manual! Huzzah!
This document was uploaded to the internet by fellow Dreamcast enthusiast Comby Laurent - the same guy without whom we would never have sampled the delights of the recently discovered official Dreamcast Megadrive emulator. While I'm sure this document won't be new to many people who were (and still are) involved in the service of Dreamcasts back in the day, I certainly hadn't seen an official service manual before so I thought it was worth sharing.

Coming in the form of a fairly rudimentary black and white printed document, the service manual appears to have been printed in Japan in 1999 specifically for the Dreamcast's European launch and is bursting with cool diagrams, diagnostics instructions, parts lists and schematics. Everything is covered here - from the physical removal and replacement of certain components, to the schematics of the main board and even the Hitachi SH-4 processor. There are detailed diagrams of the sound chips, the RAM, and the video output wizardry gubbins (technical term). It certainly makes for an interesting bedtime read, and if you're even partly interested in taking a Dreamcast apart this will assist you no end.

Once again, full credit goes to Comby Laurent for this and you can grab a scanned version of the service manual from this download link.
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Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories Depicts Harsh Truth of Dreamcast Ownership

February 5, 2017, 2:05 pm
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Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories is a series I'd never heard of before being alerted to its existence by Twitter user Decider-VT. After a little bit of research (via a mysterious and arcane tool known as Google), I deduced that Tokyo Diner is a well-regarded but still fairly obscure Netflix exclusive series that focuses on the neon-soaked, nocturnal eating habits of the denizens of the Japanese capital.

Episode 7 of Midnight Diner is of particular interest here though, not least because it paints an unforgiving image of the destiny of a person who is just the right age to have been a gamer at the launch of the Dreamcast, but who's life has spiralled out of control. The scenes in question unfold in the following manner:
I can identify with this unknown and unnamed bum. I'm almost 40 myself. I was there at the launch of the Dreamcast and my life is a bit of a car crash. I'm certainly not a bum living in my auntie's house, freeloading and falling asleep in my own squalor; but I'm definitely living from shit paycheque to shit paycheque writing utter bollocks about a console that's about as dead as my zest for life.

I'm pretty sure that one day I'll wake up in a dumpster/mold-ridden bedsit, surrounded by broken Dreamcasts and empty beer cans. Until then though, I'm quite happy to look upon the mystery Dreamcast bum and offer my support and respect. This legend might be in his 40s and jobless, but he has impeccable taste in retro video game consoles. Also, he should probably change the aspect ratio on that screen before the internet finds out...
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Akura HDMI Box Now Available For Pre-order

February 7, 2017, 1:47 pm
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We recently reported on the Akura VGA to HDMI converter box here at the Junkyard, and true to form the fine gentlemen over at Beharbros have now opened pre-orders for the unit. Weighing in at $85 plus shipping, the unit isn't exactly what we'd call cheap, but for the asking price you do get the typical outstanding build quality and lifetime guarantee that the other display boxes from Beharbros have been privy to.
Personally, I think this unit looks the dog's bollocks. I've seen various comments on social media about it being expensive or there being other alternatives for a lower price...but lets be honest here. The Akura doesn't need an external power supply or any additional cables in order for the user to connect a Dreamcast - an system knocking on the the door of 20 years old - to a HDMI-equipped display.

Simply plug the Akura into a Dreamcast, and then plug a HDMI cable into the Akura. I'm not going to argue with that. The Akura is more than just a converter though - it also adds scan lines and some other lovely features:

  • 480p video output via HDMI
  • RGB/VGA switch to select the 15khz RGB mode or the 31khz VGA mode
  • HDMI connector for plugging to your TV/monitor
  • Headphone audio output jack for plugging to a Hi-Fi or TV
  • Scanliner ON/OFF switch to turn it on or off
  • Scanliner Even/Odd switch for selecting even or odd scan lines
  • Scanliner Width switch for selecting thin or thick scan lines
  • Luminosity adjustment as a bonus feature
  • High quality custom made Dreamcast audio/video cable
For the record, I do own a VGA to HMDI converter (see above), it cost me a grand total of £7 off eBay...and I must say that it works just fine. That said, I'm still totally behind the introduction of the Akura because I know that it will still be working in another 8 to 10 years, and beyond. The converter I have already has a weird buzzing noise coming out of it, the connectors are constantly falling out, and the stench of burning flesh emanates from the thing whenever I plug it in. And then there are the demonic apparitions that appear in the mirror whenever electricity is pulsing through the tiny device...but I've learned to live with them. Joking aside, the Akura looks like a decent bit of kit and the addition of the scan line generator should help people decide if its a device they'd like to own.

The Akura is due to ship from March 2017, and you can go here to pre-order. Or simply head to our Facebook group or Twitter to comment on how much you hate the fact that the Akura exists!
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Life, the Universe and Silver

February 10, 2017, 2:58 pm
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I think it's pretty safe to say that the Dreamcast's library isn't exactly bursting with legendary role playing games. Naturally, there are some well regarded titles like Skies of Arcadia, Time Stalkers and Grandia II but in the grand scheme of major console releases, the Dreamcast's meagre selection pales in comparison to contemporary systems like the PlayStation; and even more so when pitched against the might of the Super Nintendo. To be brutally honest, this doesn't really bother me because my affinity with RPGs is negligible. I'm not overly enamoured with the genre and much prefer to spend my game time playing racers, shooters and the occasional soccer game.

In recent times though, the vast majority of my free time has been spent guiding one Geralt of Rivia through the trials and tribulations of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, and so my hard and fast opinion of role players has softened somewhat. And while I realise that The Witcher III is probably more of an action RPG than a hardcore, turn-based affair, I think it is testament to the quality of CD Projekt Red's game that someone who doesn't generally dabble in that type of experience has become fully absorbed in the adventure. Also, according to this Eurogamer article, the voice of Geralt lives just up the road from me so the experience is now extra special. I must also stress at this juncture, that the rumours of me camping outside his house and digging through his bins for discarded banana peels and samples of hair and/or skin are wholly unsubstantiated.
"Get away from my bins!"
So yeah, the point I'm failing to make here is that the Dreamcast doesn't have many traditional RPGs. The ones I have mentioned are considered as the cream of the crop, and then there's Shenmue...but is that really an RPG? I guess it does have all the hallmarks of an RPG, and I'd personally be inclined to class it as such but I already get enough grief about these articles from the folk who just see the titles on social media, let alone the ones who actually take the time to click through and read the shite I write; so I'm just going to hold my hands up and say that I both agree and disagree that Shenmue is an RPG. It's both. It neither is nor isn't an RPG, at the same time. It's Shroedingermue. There's also Record of Lodoss War...which is alright I guess. But I've played that one for about 20 minutes in total and that was back in 2006 if memory serves, so I'm hardly qualified to say just how shit it is. Come at me, internet pettifoggers.
Let's get back on track though. You came here because you saw some bollocks on Twitter or Facebook about Silver, and that is what I'm going to give you. Silver, is an action-RPG developed by Spiral House and published by Infogrames in both Europe and the United States (but not Japan) which represents something of an oddity on the Dreamcast; what with its real-time combat and profanity-ridden script. Not that that's a bad thing when coupled with the glorious accents and intonation of northern England - a sacred part of the world from which the author of this piece hails. A land of milk and honey, a rich tapestry of dialects, patchwork fields and dark satanic mills that would put Tolkien's image of Middle Earth to shame. And by 'milk and honey' I mean 'late trains and broken gas mains,' by the way. Oh, and wider social decay and misery than has ever been described in a George Orwell penned, semi-biographical tome...but you get the idea.

At this point, allow me take you back in time. Back in time to a distant period in history known as the year 2000 AD. Due to budgetary constraints we won't be traveling there in a DeLorean, nay we will be using nought but the power of the human mind. Your mind and mine. Combined, melded if you will. Like a veiny, throbbing Dreamcast-shaped hive mind. Still with me? Cool. Let's go back to 2000 AD. I was 18 years old and was happily rejoicing in my Dreamcast ownership status. The only problem was that back then, in those days before iPads and wifi and smart phones, we only had one television in the house. It was in the living room and - get this - it had a meter on the side of it that you had to put pound coins in. It was part of some archaic rental agreement my dad had taken out, and in order to operate the TV you had to put a pound coin in for 8 hours worth of viewing time.
Naturally, the meter didn't care if you were watching actual programming or playing a video game, once your 8 hours were up, the TV switched itself off. For this reason, I really valued my playing time on the Dreamcast - I literally had to pay to play my own games, as well as having to enter into heated negotiations for use of the TV in the first place. For this reason alone I never really wanted to play anything that involved long, drawn out periods of extended play...and so you see, I invariably didn't want to play RPGs because I either couldn't get the time with the TV...or the meter would run out right in the middle of a play session and pumping pound coins into the TV just seemed ridiculous. For these reasons I didn't really engage with stuff like Silver or other role players until later on, after getting my own place and a TV that wasn't controlled by the mechanical equivalent of Bill Sykes.
Almost 20 years later, I now have the time and inclination to sit down and fully appreciate RPGs in the way they are intended and, as mentioned earlier I have really fallen in love with the world of The Witcher III. So this got me thinking about some of the other western-styled role players on the Dreamcast and the first one that really leapt out at me as a title I've barely touched, was Silver. Truth be told, I've hardly touched any Dreamcast RPGs for one reason or another.

I started playing Grandia II last year and quite enjoyed the combat mechanics, but ultimately I got bored. I stopped playing Shenmue II about halfway through because I had to get a job in a warehouse. I stopped playing Evolution because it was far too twee for my tastes and I haven't even started Evolution 2. Lodoss I lost interest in after 20 minutes (see above). Skies of Arcadia? Never even been in my Dreamcast; and the same is true of Time Stalkers. But Silver is the one that bucks the trend for me. Why? Because it's the epitome of what I like to call 'RPG-lite.' It's an RPG without all the usual stuffy RPG crap I tend to dislike immensely.
Yes, it has a pretty stereotypical story line and it looks like a zillion other RPGs with pre-rendered backgrounds and polygonal characters sliding about on top (did someone say Final Fantasy VII?), but for me it makes up for all that with a familiarity that I can connect with, and a play style that I just find easy to get on with. Am I an inhuman monster for holding this opinion? Probably. Probably a complete and utter toss pot wanker who doesn't deserve to hold a Dreamcast controller. But I'm fine with that. This is the internet and I can write whatever I like. And if you don't like it, you too can go and write something about me not liking other RPGs and other people can upvote it and revel in their own collective not liking of what I don't like. It's called democracy. But this isn't a democracy. It's a Dreamocracy. What am I even writing?
So Silver, for those who aren't familiar with it, was first released on the PC in 1999. It was then ported to the Dreamcast and the initial batch of reviews was quite mixed. I recall at the time that the vast majority of UK magazines were pretty indifferent and gave Silver fairly average scores; while US resources were more forgiving. On the subject of the comparisons drawn to games like the aforementioned Final Fantasy VII, in an interview on the making of Silver, the lead developer Bobby Earl said:

"We get asked about the similarities to Final Fantasy VII a lot, and it is flattering to be compared to such a game. But the truth of the matter is that we weren't influenced by it at all. I can see why people would make the comparison but we'd started a good while before we'd even seen much of FFVII!"

Going from information divulged in the same interview, it appears that person behind the original idea for Silver, Warren Lancashire, was however a fan of Japanese RPGs:

"At the time of Silver's birth there really wasn't much out there that was like it. Warren [Lancashire] was into Japanese RPGs though and he was influenced by them I think."

Other than the visual trappings though, that's where the similarities end. And for me, that is a total relief. This is because I simply can't stand Final Fantasy VII. Turn-based combat is just not something I enjoy, and even less when the battles are random encounters. Probably one of the reasons I've avoided Skies of Arcadia to be honest...but there it is. The combat in Silver is completely real time and has more in common with something like Zelda than any other RPG I can think of. You can equip swords, shields and wands via the rotary interface that pops up when you press the B button. Once selected, the chosen weapons and defensive items are added to your character's visual avatar and you're free to hack and slash and fire projectiles as you see fit. The combat system itself is actually quite cool in that you can modify your guard and attacks by holding down the right trigger and using the analogue stick to unleash a whole range of moves - from slashes and jabs of the sword, to whirlwinds of attacks that will damage foes on all sides. It's a cool control system and I love it.
The story in Silver is pretty standard fayre and likely wouldn't stand up in today's age of Twitter SJW outrage, forum flame wars and people being offended by the most arbitrary of subjects, but it goes a little something like this: the eponymous evil emperor Silver has decided he wants a wife. So rather than getting his glad rags on and going down the local boozer to try and pull a bird, he's decided to dispatch his army to round up all of the women in the empire so that he can choose which one he likes the best. Naturally, 99% of the women in the world are captured - being the helpless waifs that they are - and it's up to the hero of the adventure David to set off on a quest to free his Mrs and all of the other women Silver has captured. The story is pretty antiquated stuff, and I'm pretty sure that if Silver came out today there'd be a hashtag about it within minutes of launch...but to be honest the story is pretty forgettable once you start playing. You forget that the whole 'rescue the weak, pathetic females' story is even a thing when you're stabbing soldiers in the face with a longsword.
There are plenty of locations to visit, loads of environments to explore and there's virtually no dungeon crawling. The game is so straight forward...and that is why I like it. You go to point A and speak to a dude. Go to point B and kill a boss. Go to point C and collect an item to give the to the dude at point A. You collect team members who you can switch between with the d-pad. You can instantly pause and select new weapons and magical items to aid you in battle. It's formulaic and very predictable and the story is dumb as fuck. But under it all, Silver is fun. It's fun. That's it. The control system is really intuitive and the boss battles make you think. The enemies you meet along the way are often as thick as two planks and are as easy to destroy as mashing the A button (don't even bother with the advanced attack controls). Silver is an RPG done for people who just want to zone out, look at pretty pre-rendered backgrounds and not have to think too hard. And that is why it's awesome. But you know what makes it even better? The amazing voice acting and dialogue.

The voice acting in Silver really is what makes it so enjoyable. In recent times we've been treated to the fantastic vocal talents of actors like Troy Baker and Nolan North and the amazing banter that results when two similar personalities are placed together in the same game. Back in the early 2000s this wasn't the case and precious few games had decent voice acting - even less in the RPG genre. Silver is an exception to this rule. The voice cast does a stellar job not only with the acting itself but also the humour, timing and dead pan delivery. I know it's a cliche to say that a game made you 'LOL,' but I honestly did at times while playing through Silver. The character interaction is so cool and totally not what you'd expect from a game from the era.
Maybe it's a result of Silver initially being a PC game and its contemporaries were already pushing boundaries in these areas that console games weren't...but still, it's really cool and impressive to be treated to such a great cast doing such a good job. Incidentally, many of the cast in Silver have gone on to star in Hollywood movies and other AAA games, and some of the incidental NPC voice are - I'm convinced - delivered by British comedian and TV personality Sean Lock, even though I can find no credits for him online. I've seen too many episodes of 8 Out of 10 Cats and his stand up routines not to recognise his voice now, so I'm convinced it's him. But even if it isn't...Silver sounds great.
I'm aware that this article is turning into an essay now, and I'm pretty sure nobody will have read the entire thing. What will happen, is that people will see the Twitter ad or Facebook post about this whole thing and just comment saying "great game," or "I've never played that - is it any good?" or simply just reply with a photo of them holding their copy of Silver, and that photo will get approximately 300 times more interaction than this entire article ever will. But ultimately, that nonsense doesn't matter. This article allowed me to talk about my dad's tight-fisted TV meter and explain why I think Silver is actually my favourite RPG on the Dreamcast...even though it's not really ever mentioned in the great debates that rage on the more 'hardcore' forums about the greatest RPGs. Silver is nothing more than a footnote in the memory of people who consider the monumental Japanese RPGs to be the final word in hack and slash adventures, but I don't care. Enjoyment is a personal quest, and not one that can be quantified by stats or figures or hit points. At the end of the day, I know what I like and I like what I know. And I like Silver.

Anyone got a pound for the telly meter?
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Sturmwind Throwback Edition Will Feature Exclusive T-Shirt

February 11, 2017, 9:51 am
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We revealed the Sturmwind Throwback Edition a few weeks ago, and until now further information has been a bit thin on the ground. Happily though, we can now announce that the special edition available exclusively through US indie game retailer The Bit Station will also include a bespoke Sturmwind T-shirt. The Bit Station assure us that the reason for the lack of further info has been down to the overwhelming demand for the standard issue version, but the Throwback Edition (which also includes the highly sought-after Kraken plushie and exclusive Sturmwind stickers) will be available from late February 2017.
The good news is that the shirt will also be available as a standalone item, so keep checking The Bit Station's site for your chance to secure one of these awesome-looking shirts. Note that the artwork has not yet been finalised; but if it's anything like the cool distressed design shown above, then we're totally behind them.
The Bit Station are selling a host of other Dreamcast indie titles too, so be sure to check them out.
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A Quick Look At Sonic Adventure 2's Green Hill Zone

February 12, 2017, 8:18 am
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I'm just going to admit this straight off the bat: I'm quite a fan of Sonic Adventure 2. It's a massive improvement over the first Sonic Adventure and the level of polish lavished upon the menus, the style and the in-game graphics is commendable. Oh, and the music is terrific. True, there are some slightly iffy aspects to Sonic Adventure 2 - the Tails and Eggman/Robotnik levels in particular have lead to many a night sweat in this household - but overall it's a decent game and a lot of fun can be had.
What a lot of people may not know though, is that Sonic Adventure 2 contains a pretty cool homage to the original Sonic game in the form of a fully 3D recreation of Green Hill Zone. You need to work pretty hard to unlock it by collecting all of the emblems from the main game, but once you do you'll notice that a previously inaccessible island on the level select map screen (see above) suddenly has a question mark hovering over it. Select this question mark, and you're whisked away to a fairly impressive rendition of the opening stage from one of gaming's most iconic titles.

Today, the Sonic franchise has taken a bit of a beating after numerous attempts by Sega to reboot and rebrand its iconic mascot, and the majority of these titles have been lambasted by the mainstream (and not so mainstream) gaming press. 2006's Sonic reboot is notorious for how misguided it was, and subsequent releases have also failed to hit the mark that Sonic fans so desperately thirst for. Personally, I thought Sonic Generations was pretty great but I have to admit that I haven't bothered with any of the other post Xbox/PS2/Gamecube era Sonic offerings. I have watched more episodes of the Sonic Boom animation than a 35 year old should probably admit to; and the upcoming Sonic Mania does look awesome, but as far as full 3D games go perhaps the rendition of Green Hill Zone found in Sonic Adventure 2 is actually the best, most faithful 3D Sonic game there is? I don't know. It is extremely cool though.
The stage itself isn't huge and is not really a full verbatim copy of the genuine Green Hill Zone, but the aesthetics are about as authentic as you could hope to get. The angular flowers and foliage; the spike pits and collapsing cliff edges; the rope bridges with robotic piranhas leaping over them like macabre salmon...it's all here and it's topped off with that superb low-res Megadrive style background filled with an endless supply of waterfalls and glistening, crystalline lakes. Even the clouds in the sky are accurate reproductions, and the stage starts off with the camera at ground level, as if you were playing the original game, just in 3D.
I have to admit that I didn't play through the game to unlock this - I cheated and used VMU Tool to put a save file onto one of my VMUs. I also discovered that the VMU Tool doesn't work with the official 4x memory card so there's another useful bit of information for nobody in particular. However, this is all academic - the point of this post is to show that yes, there is a pretty cool hidden bonus to be found in Sonic Adventure 2 and it's probably better than any of the subsequent Sonics bar Generations. That said, I can't be sure myself as I'm just going off what I've read and been told...so I'm probably wrong. I usually am. Anyway, here's a little video of my trying not to die as I negotiate the hidden Green Hill Zone bonus stage:


For even more appreciation of Sonic's opening stage, be sure to check out SEGAbits' investigation of several recreations of the iconic level here. Oh, and apologies for the the 'DCJY' logos on all the images - I've been made aware of a Tumblr site that is going through all my posts here and nicking the screenshots I take, so at least they now have to crop them if they want them...the thieving gits!
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Total Dreamcast: The Magazine That Never Was?

February 14, 2017, 1:32 pm
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Like any new system before the rise of web-based media, the Dreamcast garnered a whole raft of print-based magazines designed to support the console and help to disseminate news, reviews and hype about upcoming releases. Even though the Dreamcast came equipped with the ability to browse the internet, the online world of the late 1990s was a whole different ballgame to the one we effortlessly surf today. For this reason, for most gamers - including me - magazines were the go to resource for news about the Dreamcast.
Here in the UK, there were plenty of Dreamcast magazines to choose from and we've pored over the majority of them at some point or another here at the Junkyard in the past. There was Official Dreamcast Magazine (known affectionately as ODM) from Dennis Publishing and we featured the alternative 'demo editions' from the pitching process previously. That magazine came with a DreamOn demo disc stuck to the font cover and cost the princely sum of £5 a pop. There were plenty of cheaper alternatives, including DC-UK from Future (the magazine that resulted from the failed pitch for the official license), Dreamcast Magazine from Paragon, Dreamcast Monthly from Quay, and Mr Dreamcast from Magical Media.

Mr Dreamcast is of particular interest to many collectors because it only lasted for two issues and was aimed squarely at a younger audience. Issue 1 came with a Fur Fighters water pistol, and I inadvertently bought it once while waiting for a bus and only realised my mistake when I took my seat and opened the magazine to be confronted with the type of prose usually reserved for a Mr Men book. Just to clarify, my copy didn't have the legendary water pistol stuck on the front, so I'm blaming that for tricking me into a purchase. Cough.
The hallmark of Exeter's finest export
It appears that there was to be another Dreamcast magazine available to discerning readers in the UK though. A magazine that was even advertised and from which review quotes were used to promote certain Dreamcast games. That magazine has become the stuff of legend and I only know about it because of the borderline obsessive work of one tireless collector and expert on the subject. That magazine is Total Dreamcast, a magazine that almost certainly exists somewhere in some form...but never saw the light of newsagents shelves...

Before we delve into the murky history of the magazine and speculate on the existence of a hard copy, let's first look at the evidence that Total Dreamcast ever actually existed in the first place. Total Control was a multi-format magazine that ran for just 11 issues between November 1998 and September 1999 and was published in the UK by Rapide Publishing. We took an in-depth look at each and every issue of Total Control in a two part feature in 2016 (find part one here and part two here), and Total Control is of particular interest to Dreamcast fans because even though it was multi-format, the magazine took quite a lot of interest in Sega's then upcoming system, devoting several covers to it and countless news articles and features.
Total Control ran for 11 issues...and loved the Dreamcast
Naturally, as a publishing house of many other console-specific periodicals, Rapide soon turned its attention to the Dreamcast and so a Sega-related magazine was planned. Following in the footsteps of other Rapide-based magazines such as the aforementioned Total Control, the Nintendo 64 focused Total 64 and a popular PlayStation magazine Station, Total Dreamcast was to complete the set for Rapide, so that the Exeter-based publisher had an outlet for every major platform as well as the multi-format catch-all. The reason I initially mentioned Total Control in the first place was that in issue 11 of that magazine, an advert was run on page 67 that announced the upcoming Total Dreamcast, with a launch date of September 17th 1999. Even more curious, is the fact that several other adverts were run in this period - not for the magazine, but for upcoming games - which actually used review scores and quotes from Total Dreamcast...a magazine that never actually hit news stands. Here's one for Millennium Soldier: Expendable:
Millennium Soldier advert published in Dreamcast Monthly,
showing Total Dreamcast review quotes
So the reviews were written, the magazine was being advertised in Total Control and the launch was set to (almost) coincide with the UK launch of the Dreamcast. And then...nothing. Total Dreamcast never saw the light of day. Rapide Publishing went into administration and all of its magazines closed before the September issues of any of its catalogue could be sent to retailers. The thing is, Total Control had already advertised Total Dreamcast as coming, and there were review quotes on advertising media for upcoming games.

So, the question remains: did Total Dreamcast ever actually exist as a magazine? And if it did, what happened to the copy that the editorial team worked on before Rapide went bust? At this point, I think it's only fair to bring in Matt Neilson, a man who is by far the most knowledgeable person on the subject of video game magazines I have ever met. Matt runs a website called SegaMags and he has amassed a collection of retro magazines so immense that I'm in awe. The real driving force behind trying to solve the mystery of Total Dreamcast is really Matt, and so I thought it was about time that we had some cold, hard facts regarding the magazine and whether or not there's a hope that it could actually exist in print or electronic form. Matt's main points are covered below in bullet points...

Computer Trade Weekly (CTW) reports on Rapide's closure in issue 757 (dated September 24th, 1999 - exactly one week after Total Dreamcast had been due to go on-sale). I've taken a photo of the article in question (see below). The wording and cover-date indicate that Rapide closed sometime after Total Dreamcast was due to launch; there had been no mention of Rapide in the previous issue of CTW (dated September 17th, 1999). This is a little bit puzzling, because if Rapide closed sometime after Total Dreamcast's launch-date, then it follows that Total Dreamcast should have made it onto store shelves.
Computer Trade Weekly reporting on the closure of Rapide
Mediatel also reports on Rapide's closure (you can read the article here). Interestingly, it shows a very low resolution cover-shot of the launch/dummy issue of Total Dreamcast. Note that this is not simply copied from the advert in Total Control - the colours are more vibrant, and it doesn't have the lens flare on the upper/right hand side. The Mediatel article is dated 24th September 1999 (which is perfectly consistent with the CTW article).

Print adverts included review quotes from Total Dreamcast. See the Millennium Soldier: Expendable advert in issue 1 of Dreamcast Monthly (see above). In this advert, we finally have a good (if somewhat small) look at the complete Total Dreamcast logo -- I really like the way they incorporated the Dreamcast swirl into the tail of the 'g' in 'Magazine.' The fact that the advert includes a review quote suggests that the review was actually finished and had been made available to various advertising agencies.
Total Dreamcast as advertised in the final issue of Total Control
Another advert includes a quote and review score from Total Dreamcast: this time, it's UEFA Striker. Using the Internet Archive, we can view the (now defunct) official UEFA Striker website's press page (viewable here). Notice the Total Dreamcast quote and rating.

Former games journalist and executive editor of Total Control Garth Sumpter said that he worked on Total Dreamcast. I spoke to him recently and he told me the following:

"Me and my team had worked bloody hard to put together what was, in my opinion, a rather excellent magazine. However, after having finished it, we were told that the print deadline had been put back and that we needed to update the contents. In fact, the printers were refusing to print it as the bill for other magazines was unpaid and consequently, after having put together two month’s worth of coverage, Rapide went bust before the first edition of Dreamcast had been printed."

This suggests that the magazine wasn't actually printed. What's cool about Sumpter's recollection of events is that it explains the date-related inconsistency (specifically, it explains why Total Dreamcast wasn't released even though Rapide closed after the announced launch-date).
- Matt Neilson

So the conclusion is that Total Dreamcast was finished, it was delayed, and, ultimately, it didn't ever see a release. I've always wondered if some advance prints were made...though this is probably wishful thinking on my part!
The cover of the Total Dreamcast launch issue, recreated by Matt Neilsen
Pretty interesting stuff, I'm sure you'll agree. In summary, the facts point to Total Dreamcast issue 1 being finished and not being given a full print run before Rapide's demise. However, there is a footnote here. After trying to aid Matt in his quest, I did a bit of internet sleuthing myself and discovered a forum discussing defunct magazines of yore. I asked the question about Total Dreamcast and through a random flurry of exchanges I ended up conversing with Simon Phillips, the ex-editor of Paragon's unofficial and wildly popular Dreamcast Magazine. It turns out that he too worked on Total Dreamcast before moving on to head up Paragon's offering. Things got very interesting when Simon told me that he thought he remembered seeing a printed copy of the elusive magazine...but can't recall what happened to it. The plot thickens...
For those who are interested, Paragon actually went on to become Imagine, and Imagine was recently absorbed by Future (owner of Retro Gamer, Games Radar and Kotaku)...so technically it still exists in spiritual form.

For now though, the mystery of the phantom magazine remains tantalisingly close to being solved. Total Dreamcast was finished and there is (or was) at least one physical copy printed. Whether or not we'll ever get to read those reviews that were dangled so agonisingly close to our faces is a different matter. If this changes any time soon, you can rest assured that you'll read about it here.
Thanks to Matt Neilson, Garth Sumpter and Simon Phillips for their input in putting this article together. You can find Matt over at SegaMags or on Twitter here, and you can also help Matt in his quest to find every UK Sega magazine by going here.
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Adam Koralik Reviews Akura Dreamcast HDMI Box

February 15, 2017, 12:45 pm
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We've reported on the Akura from Beharbros a couple of times in the recent past (here and here), but now you don't have to settle for reading my words with your eyes - you can look at Adam Koralik show you just how awesome the Akura while he tells you with his voice! Yes, in his latest video Adam goes into great detail about the different video output signals the Dreamcast kicks out, and also tells us a little bit about his love for the Turkish version of Nutella. Oh, and there's a demonstration of the Akura in action. Here's the video:


Thanks go to Adam for letting me share his video here. Hopefully this will give those people who were considering purchasing the Akura a more practical idea of how it performs, and the features included. Be sure to check out the huge back catalogue of games related content on Adam's YouTube channel here, and you can find more on the Akura at Beharbros website here.
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The Games That Never Were: Episode 9

February 16, 2017, 2:04 am
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It's been a while, but the latest instalment of Pcwzrd's excellent The Games That Never Were has dropped. Episode 9 continues the popular YouTube series in which unreleased Dreamcast games are examined and the reasons for their cancellation are explored and speculated on. Episode 9 is just as cool as the previous videos in the series, and as ever Pcwzrd goes into great depth describing numerous titles that were promised, but were either never started; or were in full production at the time of  cancellation and have never been leaked.
A lot of the Dreamcast's most promising announced games did actually see the light of day, but only on the PC and episode 9 of The Games That Never Were is heavy on these. Arcatera: The Dark Brotherhood, Independence War 2, Black & White, Dark Eyes and Max Payne are all given a going over and hint at the ease with which Sega intended PC games to be ported to the Dreamcast hardware. Maybe if the Dreamcast had sold the units it deserved and it hadn't dies so prematruely, then we'd have gotten all of these games and more. Here's the video:


If you'd like to see more of Pcwzrd's videos, you can find his YouTube channel here, and he's also the administrator over at Dreamcast Live - the number one source for getting your Dreamcast back online for multiplayer action. His Twitter is here and his Patreon is here. Oh, and you can find all of the previous episodes of The Games That Never Were by clicking here.
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