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Some Metropolis Street Racer Details You May Have Missed

September 18, 2017, 1:27 pm
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Yes, I'm writing another post about Metropolis Street Racer. I simply refuse to apologise for it, and that's because this is a game I adore. The world of MSR just feels so tangible, so credible and so authentic, and not least because Bizarre Creations spent hundreds of hours accurately modelling the three cities in which the vehicular challenges and races take place. However, there's a little bit more to the sterile, simulated reality of Metropolis Street Racer than first meets the eye.
While London's Horse Guard Parade and San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf may look very close to the real thing as you whizz around in your sports car, if you stop to take a closer look you'll discover some rather interesting - and sometimes suprising - extra details that you may have otherwise missed.

With this in mind, let's buckle up and go for a little joy ride, and investigate some of the finer details you may have overlooked scattered throughout the world of Metropolis Street Racer...

The Skies Are Alive
While most of the action in MSR takes place on terra firma, should you cast your peepers skyward, you'll be treated to some unexpected sights indeed. Several of the courses feature flocks of birds that swirl and cascade around - the San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf circuits are the place you're most likely to spot our feathered friends, no doubt searching eternally for that trawler Eric Cantona was warbling about that time.

It's not just organic winged beings you'll spot if watch the skies for long enough though. You'll also be treated to passenger jets arcing across the heavens on occasion. These seemingly appear at random and are actually quite a rare occurrence, but once the planes do appear you can't miss them on account of the trails of water vapour (chemtrails?) they leave in their wake. Pretty cool when you do finally see one, especially since the skies look totally empty for the most part.
Wonder where they're going...?
If you're going to San Francisco, wipe the chem trails out of your hair
Squint and you'll see the birds
There they are!
Street Names Are Accurate
One thing you'll never notice if you play MSR properly is that the streets are all signposted. In London, there are even accurate signs at roundabouts showing true British road numbers out of the city. Here are a few screens from around San Francisco illustrating the fact:
Broadway
Skoda
Michael
Adam
The Clocks Are All Correct
Dotted around the three cities of MSR you will find various clock faces - the most iconic of which is undoubtedly the clock adorning the pinnacle of Elizabeth Tower which looks out over all of the Westminster courses. I am of course referring to what most people will know as 'Big Ben,' but that's actually the name of the bell inside the tower, not the tower itself.

Anyway, once you spot the various time keepers around the maps, you'll also note that they are synchronised to the Dreamcast's internal clock and will accurately tell the time. Unfortunatley and rather disappointingly (and realistically, for the foreseeable future), Big Ben does not chime out on the hour, but you can't have it all.
10 to 1 in old London Town...
10 past 4 in San Fran...
And 10 to 11 in Tokyo. Not all at the same time, obviously.
The Shop Fronts Are Pretty Inventive
While there are plenty of real world advertising boards and company names emblazoned across frontages in all of the cities - Fujifilm, TDK, Mc Donald's, HMV, Virgin Megastores and Renault to name a few - the vast majority of the shop fronts and hoardings in MSR are fabrications, plays on words or subtle developer in-jokes. Here's a selection of the best ones I spotted while pootling around in my open top Mazda.
Plenty of real world advertising, but...
I wish I could have a pint at the Clarence Tightingale pub
The Crazy Mannor [sic] Letting Company makes Crazy Money
I wear my Elvi's with a fresh pair of Convert
How the DCJY is regularly described
The Body Hop. Not to be confused with The Body Shop
Some Interesting Other Stuff
It's always nice to spot other things you haven't seen documented before, and that's exactly what happened while I was collecting screenshots for this post. First, I spotted this rather nice tribute to the fallen soldiers of the British Army's Guards divisions at the Guard's Memorial in the St James' Park area of London. These wreaths are usually placed around November for Remembrance Sunday, but here in MSR they are a permanent memorial to the men who lost their lives in various armed conflicts throughout the 20th century.
The Guard's Memorial in MSR...
The real Guard's Memorial in London
Elsewhere, still in London I spotted an unexpected nod to Bizarre Creations' other Dreamcast title, Fur Fighters. This one is pretty well hidden because - and please correct me if I'm wrong - all of the circuits that would potentially feature it have racers going past it on the left, and so you wouldn't see it normally. The tribute here is presented as an advertisement for a theatre show, along with smaller posters featuring various Fur Fighters heroes and villains:
Fur Side Story anyone?
It's an all star, ensemble cast
It's worth noting that MSR was also (sorta) in Fur Fighters
In a related manner, the listings on this cinema sign detail some interesting productions. First up we have Walter Lynsdale in The Polygon. Walter Lynsdale was the technical director on MSR, so I'm guessing polygons were a part of his daily life back in the late 90s/early 2000s. Also headlining we can see Lee Carter as Dad. Again, Lee Carter was an artist who worked on MSR so I can only imagine that this is a reference to a recent new arrival in his life. I wonder if his teenage kid knows about this little tribute...?
Probably wasn't £10 a ticket in 2000, either...
Maybe the child in question was born at Guy's and St Thomas Hospital in central London? That would explain why the signs have been lovingly recreated, along with the NHS logos!
Pride of the world. The NHS ain't bad, either...
There's also this interesting recreation of the UK National Lottery logo, which is emblazoned all over every branch of a chain of newsagents called Martyn - obviously a play on the well-known Martin's chain, and a nod to Martyn Chudley, the former managing director of Bizarre Creations.
It could be you...but probably won't be
Finally, there are some slightly puzzling references to other Dreamcast related things. It's worth noting that the actual Dreamcast logo and swirl aren't depicted anywhere in Metropolis Street Racer, but this strange 'DC' logo is. Could this be an unused and early Dreamcast logo? Probably not, but it doesn't hurt to speculate wildly. Also, it seems that someone at Bizarre Creations had a thing for Roommania #203 as the box art is plastered everywhere in the Tokyo circuits. Food for thought...maybe even a Donkin' Donut!
Game Play Game! And a weird 'DC' sign
Roommania #203
Roommania #203 in reverse
Another 'DC' sign
And finally, a Donkin' Donuts sign. Look hard enough, and you'll see it
There is one thing I wasn't able to find any more info on, and that is the mythical 'wanted' posters that are apparently hidden around the three cities. I've searched and searched and I can't find any of them, even though I know they are indeed a thing. If you know more about these (and I'm speaking directly to the guy who is in them and who reads this blog, btw), then please get in touch!
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The Great MSR Missing Persons Poster Hunt

September 20, 2017, 1:14 pm
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Once again, I start this post with an apology. Mere days ago I wrote about the hidden delights in Bizarre Creations' fantastic Dreamcast-exclusive racing game Metropolis Street Racer; but I thought that this new discovery needed its own post. That's because it's never previously been discussed online, and also because I need the help of the community in solving this particular mystery.
Allow me to explain. A while back, I was contacted by a member of the Dreamcast Junkyard Facebook group who claimed to have been photographed (along with his brother and a friend) and had his image hidden inside MSR's game world. I have to admit I was skeptical, until this gentleman - known as Grant - offered photographic evidence and an explanation of why he and his sibling were secreted away inside one of the Dreamcast's greatest games. Grant...over to you.

Hi Tom,

The back story is that one of my best mates 'back in the day,' was a guy called Mark Sharratt. He was working for Bizarre Creations and was one of the lead artists for Metropolis Street Racer and even got to travel to San Francisco and Tokyo as part of research for the game. He took photos of my friend, brother and myself and then secretly scanned them into the game, uploading them into the game as 'missing persons' posters, of which two were hidden in San Francisco and one in Tokyo (if I remember correctly). 

As it is with most people, friends move and loose contact over time, so unfortunately I cannot get the exact locations of the posters. I think you would be the first person to point out the missing posters if you did include them in your story, as they have been a secret between friends ever since the game came out all those years ago.
- Grant

Pretty amazing right? This is the first time these missing persons posters have ever been covered online, representing yet another surprise in the storied history of the Dreamcast. These posters have literally remained a secret for 17 years, and they still kind of are...

That's because we've found one of them. It's hidden in the Pacific Heights district of San Francisco, on the Gough North track, just before the fourth corner on the right hand side (see below, and please go check the location yourself for proof). The other two posters, we are yet to find. As described by Grant, one of the posters added by Mark Sharratt is located somewhere in Tokyo, while the remaining poster is also located in San Francisco.
So, the challenge is simple. Let's start playing Metropolis street Racer and find those missing persons posters! If you find either of the posters, please let us know in the comments, on Twitter or in our Facebook group. After 17 years, the Dreamcast is still throwing up awesome surprises!

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Hardware Review: GD-ROM & Compact Flash Modded Dreamcast

September 22, 2017, 2:01 pm
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Technology fails. It's as simple as that. With the passage of time, and daily wear and tear, eventually even the most robust equipment will suffer a breakdown. We can do plenty to prevent this atrophy, but inevitably, anything that employs moving parts will break. As Dreamcast owners, we're probably all too aware of the various failures that can besiege our favourite console, and the list of potential faults is long. Power boards, main boards, controller boards...pretty much everything in a Dreamcast is prone to the ravages of time, and public enemy number one is undoubtedly the GD-ROM drive. More than any other component as the Dreamcast rapidly approaches its twentieth anniversary, the main, bespoke optical drive that is a key component to enjoying those brightly hued games of yore is becoming a weak link. Raise your hand if you've ever put a game in a Dreamcast only to be met with the dreaded 'please insert game disc' message.
The catalyst for many a clenched fist and jaw
To remedy this, there are several devices on the market that allow users to negate the need for a GD-ROM drive; and in many cases they allow for the complete surgical removal of the optical drive in favour of solid state storage for games and other applications. The two most popular variants currently available are the GDEMU and the USB-GDROM.
GDEMU
USB-GDROM
These two devices require complete removal of a Dreamcast's optical drive and offer the option of using either an SD card or USB flash drive respectively from which to boot Dreamcast ISO files. There are also further alternatives that employ the use of a traditional hard drive, but these are not as popular or widespread as either of the two options mentioned above.
Internal HDD mod (courtesy of Pcwzrd)
Both GDEMU and USB-GDROM are great alternatives to the ailing GD-ROM drive - with both offering minimal loading times and enhanced curation of game files. Both also employ proprietary software for operation and boast almost 100% compatibility with games in the Dreamcast library. With the Compact Flash and other alternatives, DreamShell (the open source OS created by DC-SWAT) is employed, and while this benefits from being customisable, it doesn't offer the near full compatibiltiy enjoyed by GDEMU and USB-GDROM. That said, DreamShell is in a constant state of flux, with new updates always being worked on, so in the future full library compatibility is more than possible. In the meantime, here's a handy list of Dreamcast games that will work with DreamShell, courtesy of Pcwzrd of Dreamcast Live fame. The crux of the matter is this though: all of the other options for eschewing optical media listed here require the removal of the GD-ROM drive.
So, what to do? How can you have the best of both worlds? The solution is combining the convenience and enhancements that come with solid state storage, with the ability to still use a standard game GD (or CD) if the need arises. Enter the latest modification on the market that hits both these targets with quite some accuracy: the Compact Flash Dreamcast. Coming from Austrian modder Jan, this Dreamcast keeps the standard GD-ROM drive intact and perfectly functional, but also adds a fairly discreet CF card slot on the right hand side and a BIOS switch on the rear. This switch allows for the console to be booted in either 'standard' mode where the console is just a normal retail unit able to read disc-based games; or to be booted in DreamShell mode, where the CF card is interrogated and any game files on the card are presented in a rather nice menu using aesthetically appealing icons. There's plenty of other functionality too, but first, let's take a look at the hardware and just why Jan chose to use Compact Flash in this modification...

The Compact Flash mod. Notice anything different?
The Hardware
Obviously, the Compact Flash Dreamcast (or CFDC as I'm going to call it from now on) looks just like a normal Dreamcast. The only physical differences are the aforementioned metal switch on the back of the unit and the small, almost imperceptible groove just above the modem on the right side. This is where the Compact Flash card connects to the adapter cleverly hidden inside the shell of the console. Unlike either the GDEMU or the USB-GDROM, the CFDC keeps the GD-ROM drive where it would normally be, and the CF card reader is slotted in underneath. Intrigued by the use of CF rather than SD or USB, I asked Jan why he went with this format.

The reason I'm using expensive CF instead of cheaper SD storage is because there are no IDE to SD card adapters that can operate in Slave mode, which is required for DreamShell to recognize the drive; and CF to SD adapter cards are not compatible with 2.5" CF card readers unfortunately. I've tried most of them with no luck.

The CF card here must be inserted upside down simply due to the configuration of the adapter inside the shell, but it makes no discernible aesthetic difference. Inside the console, you can see just how neat and tidy everything is, and how well the space has been utilised for this mod.
On the topic of the CF card itself, I was intrigued to know if there were any limitations to the size of card the CFDC would recognise. The one I have to use for this review is a 32GB card and can hold around 90 games, however Jan assured me that there is no upper limit on the size of card you could employ - theoretically meaning you could probably house the entire Dreamcast library on a couple of cards if you have the finances to do so:

The mod has no limitations storage-capacity wise as long as you format your CF card with a Windows tool called "GUIFormat" to FAT32 using 64K cluster size - the cluster size is important because otherwise you might experience data corruption issues later on. I've been using a 256 GB card for some time now and never had any problems with this method.
The switch on the rear, as mentioned earlier is used for toggling between standard Dreamcast mode and the CF card mode. While this particular model doesn't feature a VGA out port as standard, Jan has produced previous examples that do feature this alternate output option. One other nice thing worth mentioning with this modded system though, is the cool blue LED used to replace the standard orange one. It's not a particularly unusual or difficult mod to do, but I thought it was worth mentioning and it really enhances the look of the Dreamcast; especially when it has the blue PAL swirl on the lid, and the icy glow of the AKURA HDMI adapter to compliment it.

Software & Performance
Loading times and the like are unaffected if you use the standard GD-ROM drive, as the CFDC operates like a normal retail unit if the switch is set in this position. The real magic happens when the switch is flipped into DreamShell mode and the optical drive is bypassed. As you'd expect, flipping this switch while the console is powered on isn't advisable, but doing so doesn't actually seem to have any affect on what your are doing. However, once the console is turned on in DreamShell/CF mode, you are greeted by the familiar 3D introduction sequence before being quickly shepherded into the DreamShell desktop. I can't compare the boot time to either the GDEMU or USB-GDROM as I haven't used either of those methods, but with the CF reader it takes 23 seconds going from pressing the power button to being able to select a game from the DreamShell desktop. I timed it using my iPhone's stopwatch because I'm cool. Cough.
Because the latest version of DreamShell is included on the Compact Flash card, the games are presented as icons on the desktop and the screen can be cycled using the arrows at the bottom of the display. The games are selected simply by navigating the mouse pointer and selecting them as if you were using a mouse-driven computer-based GUI. Interestingly, this setup allows Dreamcast images of all flavours to be read and loaded, so .iso, .cdi and even .gdi files are all good to go. Simply drop your files into the 'game' folder on the CF card, and after doing a bit of dragging a dropping of 'LUA' scripts (basically you need to add the icon files for the games you add, but they're already included in a separate folder on the CF card - sounds complicated, but it isn't! Alternatively, just use the ISO Loader app) and they'll pop up on the desktop when you next load up DreamShell. Naturally, we only recommend using backups of games you already legally own.
Game booting is almost instantaneous and load times are virtually non-existent, as you'll be able to see from the video embedded below. Again, I can't really compare the loading times to the other alternatives as I haven't used them, but when compared to using the GD-ROM drive, the differences are extremely favourable.


There are some nice added extras, such as the ability to still load GD based games directly from the optical drive. The added bonus here being that the regional lock-out is disabled, meaning that any region of Dreamcast console can be canibalised for this upgrade. To give further credence to this, its worth noting that the hardware utilised by this review model is a combination of Japanese and PAL parts, but the main board is NTSC-J meaning only NTSC-J games will boot in 'standard' mode. Using the GD utility in 'DreamShell' mode, the console can read discs from any region. This is a truly universal system if ever there was one, allowing for the booting of any game, from any region in pretty much any physical or virtual format you wish to throw at it.

Verdict
To be blunt, I cannot find fault with the CFDC supplied for this review. It does exactly what it is advertised as being able to do. It will run games happily from both the optical drive and the Compact Flash card, and has run everything I've attempted to with no hiccups or issues at all. Loading times are exceptional in CF mode, and the DreamShell interface is as solid as a rock. There have been a few instances where the OS has failed to return to the main desktop after exploring a GD, but due to the speed with which the system reboots this is little more than a minor hiccup.
Based on the merits of the hardware and software combined, and the craft with which the modification has been carried out by Jan, I simply cannot fault the Compact Flash Dreamcast. No, the DreamShell OS does not offer 100% compatibility, but the fact that there is a fully operational GD-ROM drive to fall back on nullifies that issue. It really does offer the best of both worlds, and when combined with an AKURA, a DreamPi and a DreamConn Bluetooth controller, we're really looking at a Dreamcast that is about as future proof as you're likely to see anywhere. To reiterate - this is a Sega Dreamcast with ample (and expandable) on board storage, an optical drive, online gaming via WiFi and wireless controllers. Madness!
How To Order
If you're intrigued by the CFDC and would like to investigate acquiring your own, you're in luck. Jan will be offering a service whereby he will take your existing Dreamcast console and modify it; or you can simply purchase one of the pre-made modified consoles. Due to the fact that he is a one-man operation, timescales aren't set in stone, and prices will vary depending on shipping and availability of components, as well as the size of CF card required. In the first instance, please contact Jan via email here. It's also worth noting that from every sale, a donation will also be made to the creators of DreamShell. If you'd like to share pricing quotes received in the comments so that other interested people may make get an idea on costs, please feel free.

So, what do you think? Are you impressed by the modification? Will you be making inquiries into acquiring one? Let us know in the comments or join the conversation in our Facebook group or on Twitter.

Special thanks go to Jan for supplying the hardware for this review, and also to Pcwzrd for some much needed fact checking before publication.
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Online Gaming On The Dreamcast Is As Easy As Pi

September 25, 2017, 4:32 am
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I'm going to start this post with a confession. I never played online with the Dreamcast during the console's natural lifespan. The main reason was that we only had one phone line in the house and I wasn't ever allowed to hog the line for longer than about 30 minutes at a time to do some web browsing. Plus, it was pretty expensive using dial up, even with BT's 'friends and family' initiative and evening and weekend reduced call charges. Fast forward to 2017 though, and I've finally managed to shake off the shame of being a Dreamcast fan who has never battled with other Dreamcasters over the internet.
This is all thanks to the sterling work of Luke Benstead, Pcwzrd and all of the talented folks working behind the scenes to resurrect the Dreamcast's online abilities through the DreamPi project. After being supplied with a DreamPi unit several weeks ago (thanks Pcwzrd!), I thought it was about time that I actually got it up and running and jumped into one of the regular online gaming sessions organised through the Dreamcast-Talk forum. It was incredibly easy to set up using the instructions and various guides available over at Dreamcast Live, and with the use of an old DreamKey 3.0 disc I had lying around I was able to get my Dreamcast hooked up to the internet with little more than a WiFi-enabled DreamPi and a tiny USB modem.
As mentioned earlier, the whole online gaming thing is one aspect of the Dreamcast I never dipped into back when I had my original console in 1999, and I honestly didn't think it would be so easy or entertaining as it was playing Dreamcast games online in the modern climate. We're all so used to the effortless online multiplayer options offered by current consoles and computers that I feared trying to get online to play Dreamcast multiplayer games would be a bit of a pain. How wrong I was...

First up, I jumped into a game of ChuChu Rocket! with Pcwzrd and a couple of CPU controlled players. It was great fun and just as frantic as it ever was. Having not really played ChuChu Rocket! for at least a year (well, the Dreamcast version) I was little out of practice and the online lag - which the game does warn about - took some getting used to (the tiles take a second to appear after placing them on the board), but ultimately it was great fun and represents the very first time in my life that I've played a Dreamcast game online, against another human being. In 2017.
The main reason for hooking up though, was the planned multiplayer session on the newly restored Monaco GP Online. Again, it was pretty effortless to get set up and kudos has to go to programmer Shuouma for bringing this title back. Once the DreamPi is configured to dial, any of the various games that are now back online can use the pre-configured settings to simply connect to the server and it's as effortless as jumping into an online game of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or any other modern title. Upon entering the network game, I was met with a pretty full lobby of other Dreamcast users from the Dreamcast-Talk forum (including our own YouTube maestro, James) and engaged in some pleasant conversation via the chat box before getting out onto the track. Preempting the chance that there'd be some options to chat, I also plugged in a Dreamcast keyboard prior to logging on, and this proved invaluable for getting messages written without the need to navigate the mostly awful onscreen keyboard.
Once the game type was agreed (a mini championship), the session began and in all honesty I was totally blown away by how well it all worked. I was expecting it to be a bit ropey, Monaco GP Online being a game released at the turn of the century and all. But I was totally wrong - the races were great fun and while my performances were shockingly bad (I was lapped at least once in the first race!), it just felt amazing to be playing a fairly obscure PAL-only Dreamcast online racer in 2017. Not only that, but with more players than each race could actually handle. The maximum number of racers per match is 6 in Monaco GP Online, but at one point there were two different lobbies bursting with players, and a record number of Dreamcast owners online at once.
Not only was it great fun, but I'm going to hazard a guess that this session could well have been the biggest online gaming meet-up on the Dreamcast since the early 2000s, and it was a great honour to be a part of it.

In a nutshell, the session was fantastic and the experience that DreamPi, Dreamcast Live and Dreamcast Now offers is almost up there with a professionally created first party service. Dreamcast Now is a website that shows who is online at any given time, and also their most recently played titles. That the Dreamcast is offering this service, utilising hardware and software completely constructed by fans of the console shows how versatile the Dreamcast is, and how devoted the fanbase is to this day.
The number of games being brought back online is growing steadily as time goes by, and to date there are over 200 active, regular players listed on the Dreamcast Now site. If you're even remotely interested in getting involved, you should head over to Dreamcast Live or Luke Benstead's personal site to read up on the DreamPi and how you can join in. Keep an eye on the Dreamcast-Talk forums too, as there are plenty more gaming sessions planned for the future with games like Quake III: Arena, 4x4 Evolution, Alien Front Online and Phantasy Star Online all scheduled. After my recent experiences, I for one will be there.

Below you'll find some footage of the Monaco GP Online session I was a part of, captured and uploaded by Pcwzrd to his personal channel over on YouTube.


Have you experienced online Dreamcast gaming with DreamPi? What did you think of the experience? Let us know in the comments or join the conversation in our Facebook group or on Twitter.

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Senile Team Launches Intrepid Izzy Kickstarter Campaign

September 26, 2017, 2:38 am
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Intrepid Izzy is the latest title from Senile Team, creators of the excellent Rush Rush Rally Racing franchise and Beats of Rage engine. We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Roel van Mastbergen from Senile Team, and now his latest creation is ready to hit Kickstarter.
Intrepid Izzy is a Metroid style platformer featuring some pretty awesome 2D sprite work and animation, and is destined to come to Steam, PlayStation 4 and Dreamcast. The funding goal is set at a fairly modest €35,000 and the different versions do sport some platform-specific features. Obviously, the version most people reading this will be interested in will be the Dreamcast version, and here's a run down of what you can expect:
  • 640x480 screen resolution
  • 60 frames per second
  • Standard controller and Arcade Stick support
  • PAL, NTSC and VGA support
  • Physical release
  • Region free
Naturally, the PS4 and PC releases will be full HD and 60fps and also feature fully customisable controls, but the Dreamcast version is the only one that will be given a physical release as standard. Intrepid Izzy promises to "combine platforming, beat 'em up and adventure elements to create a unique experience with depth, character and above all, fun!" and other promised features include a branching dialogue system and the ability to change the eponymous heroine's abilities with different themed costumes.
Find out more by visiting the Intrepid Izzy website here. The Kickstarter goes live on 27th September and we'll update this article once you can pledge your support!

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When Love For The Dreamcast Dies...

September 28, 2017, 10:03 am
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We’ve all got our Dreamcast back story. Some of us bought it at launch, having bought every Sega console since the Master System, including the 32X and Mega CD. Some of us were beguiled by the advertising; cinema adverts between big budget movies, featuring “the Dreamcast Barber”, or the classic “Its thinking…” TV commercial, showing the Dreamcast to be a machine so vastly superior to the existing consoles, that purchase was a necessity. It was new, it was sexy, it was enthralling…
But for me, the whole console launch, the killer apps and the must have games, the wacky peripherals and the arcade perfect experiences, completely passed me by. A proud Sega supporter, I was  first a Megadrive, then Saturn owner, but my kids had rebelled against the Saturn as the “family console”, insisting on a Playstation for Christmas 1998. And not too long after that, my desire to game waned; the chief gamers in the house were now my two eldest sons, (aged 7 and 10 at the time)…we simply 'progressed' to a PS2 (with GTA 3 and a DVD player!) The Dreamcast and indeed Sega as a console maker, was finished before I even realised it had been in the race…
I received my first Dreamcast in the summer of 2004. It had belonged to a nephew of mine, and he thought his younger cousins might be interested in it. Being complete PS2 addicts, they didn’t give it a second look, but I, on the other hand, did. I became intrigued by it, beguiled and charmed by it. I started to use my newly acquired home PC to research the failed enigma that was the Dreamcast, finding Planet Dreamcast, all of the IGN reviews and of course, our beloved Dreamcast Junkyard. I felt gutted that I had missed out on it’s launch, it’s short life and it’s untimely demise…I tried to immerse myself into it’s history, in a vain attempt to recapture something that had been all too fleeting…the Dreamcast burning brightly in the consciousness of gamers everywhere...



It was then that my interest morphed into something of an unhealthy obsession. I started buying every game I could, watching endless YouTube videos and spending long hours on blogs and forums. Tom Charnock, the very founder of this esteemed site, kindly allowed me to pen a few piss poor articles, and let me be a member of the Junkyard team. I sought out rarer games, imports and peripherals, met a strange man, in a service station on the M1, at 11:15 at night to procure a wank Treamcast, scored a sweet Dreamcast with a see through green shell, but also ton of worthless cack….lots of stuff I didn’t need like an Arsenal Dreamcast shirt, a neon Dreamcast “bar sign”, and endless coloured controllers and VMUs. I dread to think of my total financial outlay on the system, and I dread my wife knowing it, even more.
I was a man obsessed.
But little by little, the love, the obsession, the interest, that had at first consumed me, began to fade and fizzle. And it was partly, no, in fact mostly, Sega’s fault. An outrageous assertion? Let’s see.
Not ones to miss up on the opportunity of making a quick buck out of their old IPs, Sega had bought out “the Dreamcast Collection” (Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, Space Channel 5 Part II, and Sega Bass Fishing) for the Xbox 360, my 'current gen' console. The practise of bringing out last generation games, as cut price bundles, on current generation consoles, has been going on since the Megadrive days. It’s a way for the game buying public to tap into a bit of recent nostalgia, or play classic games they may have missed. It’s also a lazy way for publisher to wring out the last few quid, from tired old IPs.
The collection was a reasonable representation of classic Dreamcast fare, however, Space Channel 5 (Part 2) was a good inclusion, something a little unusual, and maybe unplayed by the odd Dreamcast enthusiast. Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure were good solid titles and bonafide Dreamcast classics. But Sega Bass Fishing, obviously now to be played without the fishing rod peripheral, always seemed like an odd choice to me.
Knowing of my love for the Dreamcast, one of my lovely sons decided to buy me a copy  of the collection for Christmas. I didn’t need it…I had all of the games after all! But he thought I might want it, hence it arrived under the tree along with my socks, aftershave and matching woolly hat and glove set…(Christmas presents take a nosedive when you hit middle age). Sadly, that innocent act of festive generosity was the start of it. The effect was immediate. Firstly,  I actually played Sonic Adventure to its conclusion, something I’d never done on the Dreamcast. I asked myself why? Was it the controller?
Next, I found myself driving a Crazy Taxi, to a vastly inferior soundtrack, now lacking the Offspring charm of the original. Why would I do that? I did play a bit of Space Channel 5… but not enough to unlock Space Michael. I even flirted with a bit of “360 Controller Bass Fishing”. Why was I neglecting my Dreamcast, to play these titles on the 360? I soon realised, however, that it was because it was so much easier for the lazy gamer. No tiny memory VMUs, no changing plugs, wires or leads, wireless controllers(!) and the ability to continue using my 360 24/7 which I was a bit taken with at the time…it was enticing.
But what sealed the deal, and saw the end of my torrid affair with the Dreamcast (and Saturn for that matter), was Xbox Live. When Dreamcast titles started to appear on other consoles, as physical discs, the love had begun to die… it wasn’t just the  games on the Xbox Dreamcast Collection disc. I’d also bought House Of The Dead Part 2 & 3 , plus Samba De Amigo on the Wii. I’d got Shenmue 2 for the Xbox which could be played on the 360,and Powerstone 1 & 2 and Crazy Taxi 1 & 2 on the PSP… I now had a choice of nine Dreamcast games that I could play on the current gen systems I loved the most…
Xbox Live, in the meantime had started leaking Dreamcast games like an incontinent pensioner in a fresh pair of Huggies…Jet Set Radio, Sonic Adventure 2, Soul Calibur (plus Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2, NiGHTS and Fighting Vipers from the Saturn’s repertoire…) and like the frivolous, money haemorrhaging sucker that I am, I bought ‘em all.
Little by little, the lightguns and the analogue TVs were fobbed in favour of the Wiimotes and the digital flat screens. The disturbing wheezing, sawing, whirring disc drive of the Dreamcast was replaced by the hushed tones of the Xbox 360 and the "My Games" selection of it’s system, where without getting up from my chair, I could now play Gears Of War, followed by Soul Calibur, followed by Fighting Vipers, NiGHTs, Sonic Adventure and… well you get the picture. So much of Sega’s IP was now whored out all over Xbox Live, along with new games which scratched the Sega itch, by including a plethora of fan service in titles such as… Sonic & Sega Superstars Tennis, Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing.
My rejection of my Sega consoles mustn’t have gone unnoticed by my eldest son, because on one dark day in 2012, he scooped up all of my Dreamcast collection, all of my Saturn collection: games, consoles, peripherals, rarities, imports and frivolous tat, into a series of bin bags (I kid you not) and dumped  it all in the loft. Whilst I was furious and quick to transfer the games into plastic storage cases, much of the hardware remains buried to this day,  in a landslide of domestic shite in that upstairs wasteland...

And that, my dear friends is how one man’s love for the Dreamcast died. What a sad and depressing tale. At least it would be, if that was how the story ended...
Next time:Discover how mine and the Dreamcast’s love for each other was rekindled, like that of two lonely divorcees, liquored up at a school reunion.
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A Metropolis Street Racer Treasure Trove

September 29, 2017, 11:29 am
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OK, this is the third Metropolis Street Racer related article I've posted here in the space of a fortnight, but this time I think you'll thank me for it, rather than shake your head in disgust before falling to your knees and screaming at the sky as dark, ominous thunder clouds gather and threaten to unleash a maelstrom of biblical proportions. After the preceding articles about some of the more interesting track side details to be found in Bizarre Creations' epic racer; and the follow up article detailing the hidden 'missing persons' posters dotted around the San Francisco and Tokyo circuits, comes this third instalment in which I will showcase some images and documents I'm pretty confident have never previously been published online.
A few days ago, I was contacted by somebody on Twitter (a person who wishes to remain anonymous) who asked if I was interested in a Dreamcast-related disc. Naturally I was, and a few days later the disc turned up in the post with no letter and no return address. Very strange, I'm sure you'll agree. Being the kind of person who risks infecting his computer with malware first and asking questions later, I threw the disc into my drive and explored the shit out of it with wanton abandon. I was met with things, most wondrous things...but mainly a treasure trove of Metropolis Street Racer screenshots, artwork, logos, shots of the game's wire frame models and development screens, as well as some press releases and a developer interview.

Personally, I have never seen a disc that looks like this before. I've seen all manner of GDs and prototype discs in my time, but never one of these blue and white Sega Europe branded 'confidential material' discs. That said, I do know that several collectors in the community have these, and their contents vary wildly, and some even contain the Dreamcast SDK on them.
There's over 250MB of stuff on the disc, and for something produced in 2000 that's pretty hefty. On closer inspection, it appears to be the type of high quality, pressed CD-R that would be sent to magazines of the era or other media outlets, and the documentation included reinforces this theory. However, for the preservation of your sanity's sake I'll only be reproducing some of the most interesting stuff here, so the main developer interview and some of the previously unseen wire frame/development screens and hi-res computer generated artwork. If you really want to see the press releases etc., then let me know in the comments.
Are you ready? OK - let's kick things off with some nice shots of the 'behind the scenes' stuff...

Development Screens
All of these images are contained in a folder labelled Technical Development, and appear to be screen grabs from a workstation on which the development software was running. I don't really know much more than that, but it's interesting to see all the sidebars and menus etc. Also interesting is the level of detail in the shots showing vehicles - the rev counters, gear ratios and the like. Some of the shots also clearly show the trajectories of environmental elements too, such as helicopters and the planes we looked at in a previous MSR article (click for larger versions).
Bizarre Creations Developer Interview / Q & A
This interview is a pretty legthy document and looks to be a sort of introduction to Bizarre Creations and the history of the studio. Prior to Metropolis Street Racer, it's unlikely that the vast majority of people outside of the racing game scene would have been familiar with the name, so it's pretty useful and was probably intended to be printed in magazines (or at least, partly used in features). Beware, this is pretty lengthy, although it's also a totally fascinating glimpse into the development cycle and also how optimistic developers were on the future of the Dreamcast...

Metropolis Street Racer
Bizarre Creations – Developer Q&A

Bizarre Creations

So who are Bizarre Creations?

Bizarre Creations is an independent software development house, based in Liverpool, UK. We’ve been developing games for over 12 years, and are probably best known for the first two Formula 1 games developed for Sony Psygnosis. We try to produce games which are enjoyable, both to look at and to play and which make maximum use of the technology on which they are developed.


How did the company start?

Martyn Chudley, a programmer/designer, formed the Company over 12 years ago, rather than going to University. He produced games for the C64, Atari ST, Amiga and Sega Megadrive – back in the days when you could do it on your own!

When the PlayStation came along, Martyn needed to take on permanent staff, and so the current Bizarre Creations team was born. We’re now over 30 people, but have remained small and focussed, as we feel that’s the best way to produce high quality games.


Which games do you feel are your greatest successes to date?

Well, obviously Formula 1 and F1 97 / Championship Edition have been our best commercial successes, selling over 2 million units each. However, we still look back fondly at ‘The Killing Game Show’, and also hope that our current projects will be successful too.


There are some pretty freaky pictures on your website – what are the people at Bizarre really like?

Well, some are a little bizarre, we must admit! Basically, we’ve chosen people who want to work at Bizarre, and who want to work on games. People have come from a wide variety of backgrounds and skills, and have generally not worked in games companies before. But all of them share a passion and dedication to games and their development.


What sort of games do the teams play when they’re not writing games?

A huge variety of games! When some games have come out, we shock our local ‘Game’ store by asking for them to reserve 10 copies!! Generally, people enjoy a wide range, depending on what mood they’re in. FPS, platformers, beat-‘em-ups, RPG’s, racing games, adventures – you name it, and someone will be into that style!


How can people find out more about Bizarre Creations?

The best way is to have a look at the website – www.bizarrecreations.com – where you can find out about our games, and what we do. Check out the ‘Beyond Bizarre’ page for the strangest bits, if you dare!



The Metropolis Street Racer Team

Tell us more about the people working on Metropolis – were they already a team before the game started?

Some of the team were people taken from the original Formula 1 team – and so they’ve got a lot of games experience, especially with racing games. We’ve obviously had to expand the team more than just the F1 people, as next-generation projects generally need more people than previous generation consoles. But now the team is established, most of them will probably stay together for the next project.


Where have the new people on the team come from – were they working on games elsewhere?

Well, with the new Metropolis Artists, we seem to have taken a job lot from Teesside University’s!! In general, people haven’t worked on games before – we’ve only got 2 people in the whole company with games experience previous to Bizarre. So they’ve either come straight from college, from other non-game related jobs, or from being unemployed.


Are they all racing game addicts?

Some of them are. And working on a game as intense as this, you become very involved in the game anyway. There’s often hotlap competitions going on – we all pretend it’s for ‘testing’ purposes though!


How many people work on each part of the game?

There’s a Producer who oversees the whole project, and he has an Associate Producer to assist him. There’s also a Tester who works on the project when required, and our Technical Director also assists where needed.

On the programming side, we have one Programmer who does all the technical side, one who does the game code, one on the AI, one doing special effects and one who does the sound and music coding.

The Artists generally focus on 3D modelling, 2D textures and presentation, or in some cases, both. We have six Artists modelling the cities, two Artists who are solely on 2D work, and one Artist who models the cars.

So that totals up to five Programmers, nine Artists and four ‘project support’ staff who are there when needed. And that’s quite a big team!


And who’s in the team?

Well, here’s the people who are working on the game at the moment:

Brian Woodhouse – Producer
Nick Wiswell – Associate Producer
Programmers – Martyn Chudley, Roger Perkins, Phil Snape, Dave Al-Daini and when needed, Walter Lynsdale
Sound Programming – Jonathan Amor
Artists – Jon Dugdale, Mark Sharratt, Steve Heaney, Lee Carter, Derek Chapman, Julie McGurren, Gren Atherton, Paul Spencer and Glen Griffiths
Testing – Ged Talbot



How the Project Started

How and when did the project start initially?

Sega came to us in the days of the Saturn, to see if we’d work on a project for them then. We had a look at the Saturn, but decided to wait until their next generation of machines. So we kept in touch, and when they were developing Dreamcast, they came back with the idea of us signing up for the first wave of 1.5 party titles.


Whose idea was it to develop Metropolis Street Racer?

They wanted us to do a racing game – after a couple of earlier plans, it was settled on a ‘a city based street racing game’. So really it was their idea to make the best use of the skills that we had demonstrated with Formula 1. 


Did Sega give you a clear outline of what they wanted, or did they leave the design up to you?

They left the design up to us, but all through the design process, they kept an eye on what we were doing, and let us know if they didn’t think that an idea would work in the game. In this way we could be as creative as we wanted, but knew that if we went too far ‘off the rails’, Sega would be there to make sure that the game was still focussed for the marketplace. All in all, that’s worked very well.

Also, our Producer is Kats Sato, an ex-Sega Japan artist and Designer, who has worked on racing games before in Sega’s prestigious AM division. He’s been very helpful in providing a Japanese perspective, and so we hope the game will have appeal across all territories.

Who chose the name, and was it ever called anything different?

When it was still a secret project at Sega, it was originally codenamed ‘Project Crimson’ (for reasons lost to history). However, this had to be hastily changed, as one clever journalist managed to find out about its existence. So we got suggestions from the team, and ‘Metropolis’ was voted as the best title. This was expanded to Metropolis Street Racer (or MSR) last year.



Research

Has it taken a lot of research to develop the game?

Yes! It’s been more than we ever anticipated – both in terms of time and expense! To build exact replicas of the city, you have to have a phenomenal amount of materials of all descriptions. Also, it’s important that the artists are totally familiar with the place that they are modelling, and have as much reference as they can.


How exactly do you go about building a city from scratch – where on earth do you start!?

We started with tourist maps, as these helped us to choose the areas most suitable for modelling, in terms of popularity, interest and good racing. Then we need a layout, so it’s onto accurate street plans, government survey maps, land usage data, topological maps and aerial photographs to get the layout and heights correct. And finally it’s onto the hard graft of hand-modelling all of the individual buildings!


What research materials have you collected from the cities?

When you’re at the city, you have to become a kleptomaniac, and pick up ANY material that will be useful, from local guides, to tourist videos. We’ve even got hold of things like architects and surveyors plans, especially where there’s been changes to the places that are happening. 

You need everything you can get your hands on, to supplement the maps, photographs and surveys you’ve already got. But most importantly, it’s the specialist research photographs and videos that the artists and researchers take themselves, that make all the difference.


Did you have to travel a lot? Who went places from the teams?

Oh yes! The artists have had to travel a lot to get the materials they need. It’s extremely useful for the artists to have actually seen what they’re modelling. One of the artists visited Tokyo when he was half way through building part of the city – he said it was like a week-long déjà vu! So far, we’re up to 250 thousand air miles for research trips and over 100 train tickets to London! 


It looks like some of the buildings are almost photographic – are they taken from photographs?

Yes, and that’s what’s making a great difference to the game. Back in the 32 bit days, you couldn’t afford to use photographic textures, as the machines only had a small amount of VRAM to store textures. But the Dreamcast has a massive 8MB of VRAM, and an amazing compression system, meaning that you can have high colour, high-resolution textures taken straight from the photographs – which means the cities can look really realistic!


What sort of photographs does a researcher need to take for the artists?

There’s three types of photograph that the artists need, coupled with video footage, to assist them with the cities. Firstly, there’s a general ‘street shot’ which sets the scene for the area, and helps them to identify each building on the maps.

Then the specific buildings have to be photographed one-by-one, to help with modelling each individual structure. And finally, there’s the texture photographs, where each part of the buildings have to be photographed in as much detail as possible, to allow the texture artist to extract a good texture for the particular area.


Does anything need to be done to a texture photograph before it’s used, or can it just be scanned in and applied to the model?

There’s always some work to be done. Firstly, there could be something obscuring part of the shot – for example a car or a person in front of a shop, or a tree branch in the way higher up. These have to be removed, and the artists have a lot of clever techniques to clean up the photograph and ‘paint in’ what’s really underneath.

Then, when the image is clean, the artist has to make sure everything lines up. If you think about a tall building, when you take a photograph looking upwards at it, the image is distorted by perspective, and the building appears to be trapezoid rather than rectangular. So we have to use image stretching methods to make sure that the image is straightened, so it can be placed onto the rectangular model of the building.


Would the game have been different without so much research?

Yes, we think it would. There are many, many racing games out there in made-up locations, or take inspiration from real cities, but have buildings that are in the wrong place, or are the wrong size, or just look wrong. Without the research the sense of scale wouldn’t have been so accurate, and we’d have definitely had less detail. The large amounts of photography have also given us a greater range and accuracy of colours than non-realistic games. Ideally, we want people to walk past a shop window playing that game and think it’s a video of the city concerned!



Cities

Why choose London, San Francisco and Tokyo?

Because they’re well-known, popular places to visit, and are good representatives of the key territories that they game will be released in. The fact that Sega has offices in each of them actually didn’t have anything to do with it, believe it or not!


Did you plan from the start to build the cities as they are now, or did you have to research the best way to model them first?

We had to start with a lot of research, as there’s many ways we could have gone about this. We looked at generic cities like you’ll see in many other games, with buildings ‘suitable’ for the area, but not taken from real life. We also looked at taking ‘set pieces’ such as Trafalgar Square, Shibuya Station, Pier 39, and then linking them together with made-up areas. 

Also, we researched into the best methods of modelling the cities. Did we build individual parts in SoftImage, and link them together with purpose built tools? How would we add the game information such as split lines or circuit details? In the end, we decided to take probably the most ambitious route, which was to build the cities true to life.


Which was the most difficult city to research, and which was the most difficult to model?

Probably Tokyo in both cases, because of the language barrier and the difference in buildings and ‘street furniture’ from those we are used to. All the maps we’ve got are in Japanese, and so you can’t just read ‘park’ or ‘bus stop’ or whatever, the same as we can for the UK or America. Also, there’s some amazing older architecture such as the Asakusa temples, which we’ve had to model in detail as well.


Did you change which areas to build at all – for example, after seeing them in real life?

Yes, a couple of the areas were changed around a little – and also one was made larger and one reduced in size, as the extra part was rather dull both to drive and to look at. Of course, the one we decided to enlarge happened to be in Japan, clocking up yet more air miles!!


How long does it take to build an average city area? Do some areas take longer than others to build?

Each area is definitely a different modelling challenge from the other, as they all have their own style and atmosphere. But taking an average example, the initial office-based research probably takes a couple of weeks, and then a visit to the city usually takes a week to gather the early research. The photography and videos take about a month for a full-time researcher to do the bulk of the research for a city – so about 1-2 weeks per area.

Then we get to the modelling. Preparing the ground mesh – the accurate street plans and height data – takes probably 1-2 weeks per area. Then comes the most time consuming part. It probably takes about six to eight months to fully model an area to the level you see in the game today. In addition, it takes about 2 months for a texture artist to prepare all the textures. So if one person did the research, modelling and textures, you’re looking at probably a year’s work PER AREA – pretty time intensive!

 Tell us about the areas – where are they and what are they like?

Well in no particular order, the following description list all of the areas in the city, and details what type of areas they are, and what we’ve modelled…..


San Francisco

Area 1 – Fisherman’s Wharf
This is a big tourist area, with plenty of restaurants and shops, and attractions such as the wax museum, Ripley’s ‘Believe it or not’ and Pier 39. It’s the place that you catch boats to Alkatraz, and has a view of the island across the bay. 

Area 2 – The Financial District
This is a maze of large, impressive modern office blocks, with many banks, the Emarcadero centre, and the Port of San Francisco World Trade Center. The massive Transamerican Pyramid looms over the area, looking down on the brand new railway line, which we’re modelling as it’s being built!

Area 3 – Pacific Heights
This is the exclusive residential area, with the massive hills that people always associate with San Francisco, featured in films like ‘Bullitt’. It contains some beautiful and very expensive properties, ranging from small ornate wooden affairs to towering  flats of various and almost outlandish design.


Tokyo

Area 1 – Shibuya
The main focus of Shibuya is it’s trendy shopping and nightlife areas. It’s popular with the tourists, and the massive Shibuya Square crossroads is a common sight on TV programmes about Japan. It has a massive train and bus station, and at night, it’s a blaze of neon and TV screens.

Area 2 – Shinjuku
This area is dominated by its business and finance occupants, with their towering 200m+ headquarters, including Japan’s tallest building – the Government Buildings. A major train station takes shoppers to the narrow shopping streets, specialising in electrical goods.

Area 3 – Asakusa
Asakusa is a strange blend of the ancient and modern. Right next to the gritty urban areas, are a maze of traditional and ancient Japanese Temples. There’s plenty of tourist shops, and near the river crossing, there’s parkland overlooking the strange brewery with its huge yellow sperm placed on top!


London

Area 1 – Trafalgar
Based around Trafalgar Square, with its statues, lions and pigeons, the areas extends up to the trendy Leicester Square area. It also takes in Piccadilly Circus, with Eros overlooking the neon signs, down to the end of the Mall, with the impressive Admiralty Arch.

Area 2 – Westminster
No film on London is complete without the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, but this sprawling area also includes Westminster Abbey and Waterloo train station. Crossing the Thames via Westminster and Lambeth bridges, it also takes in the County Hall, St Thomas's Hospital and Lambeth Palace.

Area 3 – St. James's Park.
Based in main areas of Government and State, this includes the familiar areas of Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall, Parliament Street and Square, Birdcage Walk, The Mall and St. James's Park.  From the area you can also see the Big Ben area, extending on to the Ministry of Defence building, Downing Street, the Cenotaph, the Queen Victoria Memorial and of course, Buckingham Palace itself!


Is there anything missing from the areas you’ve built?

There’s a few back streets which have been closed off as they were too narrow for the game, or not suitable to include, for example, dead end streets. There’s also a lack of items such as ‘no entry’ signs, traffic lights, etc, which could cause you to break the law, as requested by some of the car manufacturers.


Have you had to get permission to use the shops and advertising hoardings? What has been the general reaction?

Yes, we do. It seems strange, as you see videos of the real city in news stories, travel programmes or similar, but in video games, we still need permission. So Sega have had to approach everyone, and generally the reaction has been positive. 


Do you think people will buy the game to get to know the areas of the cities, like as tourist guides before they go?

It would be nice to see, yes! We hope the game will point out some of the exciting and beautiful places we’ve modelled in the cities, and maybe even inspire a few extra visitors! And we hope after playing the game, visitors to the city will at least feel a few areas area familiar to them…..

Is there a facility in the game to add other cities as add-on packs, or would that be too difficult?

Well, it would be a simpler thing to do if the game was a basic ‘race this circuit then race that circuit’ type of game structure, but Metropolis is more complex and involving that that. So as the game stands now, with the cities, routes, challenges and areas are linked into the structure of the game, it would be extremely difficult to add additional cities. Sorry!



Cars

Are all the cars in the game convertibles and if so, why?

The main game cars are convertibles, yes. We chose them because they’re cool, sporty and desirable, they fit the feel of the game perfectly, and there’s a great range of performances which will fit in well with the game’s progression. Also, MSR isn’t a car ‘collect-‘em-up’ so we don’t want to just try and add loads of cars that are unnecessary for the gameplay itself.


How realistic are the models – colours, shapes, etc?

They are modelled to a high level of accuracy, both inside and outside. We take the model, dimensions and colours from the manufacturer’s specifications, and that includes the wheels and basic interiors too.


How did you get all the research for the cars? What sort of things have you got to help you build them?

We’ve got everything we can, from manufacturers models, through plans, layouts, and drawings to showroom brochures. We’ve also got a lot of our own research, via the internet, from showrooms, and from taking highly detailed photographs from all angles of the models that we’re representing. In terms of the dynamics, we’ve got the same sort of thing – manufacturers details and our own research.


Are there any cool extra details you’ve added to the cars that you’d like to tell us about?

Well, we’ve built them in intricate detail, and they do have little added extras which aren’t really involved in the game, but do look good. These include things like all the lights on each model are functioning and in the correct place, and also working brake callipers on the wheels!


How accurate are the car performances and handling? Have you taken into account the different characteristics of the cars?

Each car has its own characteristics, which are taken from manufacturers’ data. Obviously, there’s a large handling difference between front and rear wheel drive cars, but there’s also a large number of parameters that are put into the complex dynamics model. These include things like the wheel positioning, engine power curves, gears and grip of the tyres.


How many cars can you ‘own’ in the game at any one time? Does the player get the chance to try the cars out before they choose?

The game allows you to run a garage of up to six cars, but you can also stick with just one car if that’s what you want. As your choice of car is important to the game, then you’ll have the chance to try out cars before you challenge to win them.


What can the player do with the cars if they win them?

When you win the car that you’ve challenged for, you get to pick the colour and numberplate when you add it to your garage. You can choose the colours you like best for each car, or go for a unified look and plates for your cars – the choice is yours! And then you can choose to race them in any of the challenges and races in the game – but choose wisely, as some cars are better than others at certain things!


Which of the cars would people in the team pick to own themselves?

Well the current favourites from the team are:
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 (from the boy racers!)
TVR Chimaera
Audi TT
Honda NSX or S2000
Toyota Supra
Rover MGF
Mitsubishi GTO
Fiat Barchetta 
And one person who’d be happy with any as long as he swap it for a diesel transit van – ours not to question why!!!



Gameplay

You’ve hardly said anything about the gameplay so far – why is that?

Metropolis is not the usual racer that some people may be expecting. The gameplay system is unique, and we therefore haven’t wanted to give out too much information that could be useful to our ‘gaming rivals’ out there! And we want to make sure that it’s 100% polished before we announce it to the gaming world.


Is the game like Gran Tourismo? Is it a car ‘collect-‘em-up’?

No, it’s quite different from Gran Tourismo. Sega have got their ‘Gran Tourismo’ type of game with Sega GT, and we’ve always been aiming in a different direction. We want to give racing game fans something new to try, to give a big variety of games in the marketplace. So MSR is more a game of skill and strategic racing, rather than a ‘race to collect cars’ theme.


When will you be giving out the full details about the gameplay?

As in the last question, we don’t want to give full details until it’s all finished, as giving half-baked ideas won’t show the full scope of the game, and may be more confusing than anything. We anticipate being able to reveal the whole thing in a month or two’s time.



Sound and Music

We hear the sounds have been taken from real cars? How did you go about getting them?

The real car sounds were recorded at a research centre that has an “anechoic chamber”. The cars were recorded with microphones to the front and rear of the car, and recordings were taken at a range of different revs. Other sounds such as the car’s tickover, starting-up and horn also recorded. We also had manufacturers resource material of the car being driven , for example going up and down the gears. 


Are there other sounds in the game? Could you give us a few examples?

There are plenty of additional sounds there to enhance the realism of the cities. Examples of the ambient sounds we have are birds, dogs barking, police car, birds, roadworks, church bells etc. and all of the sounds’ volumes, pitches and pans can be changed in real-time to simulate 3D positioning and Doppler effect. We even have chiming clocks such as Big Ben’s Clock Tower, which chime on the hour using the Dreamcast’s internal clock as a reference.


Does the sound of the car change at all, for example, depending on the view? 

Each car uses two sets of samples - one recorded from the front that is predominantly the engine, and one from the back which has a larger proportion of the exhaust note.  As the camera position changes, so does the car sound, the most noticeable transition being when the ‘in-car’ camera is selected, giving a harsher, more raucous sound.

The Dreamcast’s built in sound DSP has also been used to add reverb to the circuits.  This is calculated in 3D from the positions of buildings and other objects such as bridges, tunnels and trees.  So, for example, as you go inside a tunnel the engine sound reverberates around and as you go past a line of trees you can hear them whooshing past.


What about the music – what style(s) have you chosen?

We’ve chosen a whole selection of styles – ranging from dance through to J-Pop, from Jazz through to Rock and even Country music. You can choose what you listen to, using the game’s unique music selection system.


Who has done the music – is it licensed or available elsewhere?

All the game’s music has been specially written to suit the game by Richard Jacques, Sega’s own musician. None of it is licensed – both Sega and ourselves felt that Richard’s music would help give the game its own identity. Check out the Sega Europe website for updates on where it will be available.


An early article mentioned a car radio in the game – can you tell us how this is used?

That’s right – it’s how you choose what you listen to in the game. The radio system has three stations per city, with musical styles appropriate to the particular station. The radio stations aren’t real ones, but are based on real life stations. As an example, in London there is Capital Jazz (modern jazz and jazz funk music), The Underground (dance music) and West Central One (general pop music).

Each station has jingles, real adverts and DJs talking and introducing the tracks, randomised to make it sound natural. The DJ scripts and adverts have been recorded using a selection of specialist voice actors, including American and Japanese actors.

For those who would prefer, the music can also be played as ‘virtual’ CDs giving a selection of tunes without any DJ speech.



Internet and VMS

What are you planning in terms of Internet support within Metropolis?

As we’ve not released full information on the gameplay, we can’t really give details on the Internet support, as it’s linked into the main game itself – sorry! 


And what about the VMS – will you have a purpose for that in the game?

Yes, the VMS is used for recording game data as usual, and we can reveal that we have plans to make use of the VMS-to-VMS connectivity, too.



Sega 

When did you first get to know Sega?

We first talked to Sega back in 1996, just after the original Formula 1 was shown at E3. Kats Sato, now our Producer, liked the game, but Psygnosis had not given any information about the developer. So Kats, ever resourceful, had to resort to underhand tactics to find us. He unplugged the machine, and then asked someone at Psygnosis to restart the game, thus finding out logo!

So we met up with the Sega guys, and were really impressed how everyone was in it for the love of games, rather than being business people who didn’t know about the end product. We’ve even seen Irimajiri-san taking off his badge at Tokyo Game Show so he could sneak round and play some games without being recognised!


How are Sega to work with?

Great! Sega are focussed on games, and care about the product itself, which really shows, as their titles are all quality releases. They are cool guys, all with a sense of humour, which you need when you’re working with us! They provide all the support we need for the game – but we’re still having trouble getting Kats to make the tea when he visits!!


As you’re based in Europe, do you have much contact with Sega Japan, or do Sega Europe sort out everything for you?

Sega Europe deal with most of the day-to-day issues, but that doesn’t mean that we feel isolated from Sega Japan. We have people coming to visit us, and when we’re down in London seeing them, we often have the chance to pop out for some food with people from Sega Japan. We’ve visited the HQ a couple of times, and our Technical Director knows that their technical people can answer any complex questions via Sega Europe.


What is a 1.5 party developer? What special treatment do you get from Sega?

It’s an expression that Miyake-San, COO of Sega Europe, coined to show that these close developers were not in-house (1st party) but were closer than the normal 2nd party publishing deals. We’re basically a group that have been chosen to produce specific high-quality titles for Sega, to be sold alongside their impressive in-house games


Who looks after the project at Sega? What do they do?

Firstly, we have our Executive Producer, Kats Sato, who is assisted by Jose Aller where he needs it. From the technical side, there’s Serge Plagnol and his team with Colin Carter’s Internet group sorting out networking issues. There is a large marketing and PR presence at Sega now, with Jim Pride looking after this side of things for us.


Sega didn’t have an outstanding success with the Saturn, so were you worried about working with them?

No, not at all. Sega have an excellent games heritage, and after seeing what Dreamcast had to offer, we knew that they would be back on form again!



Dreamcast

When did you first hear about Dreamcast, and what did you think of it?

It was back in 1997, when it was still called either Dural or Black Belt, depending on who you talked to! We were excited about it, of course, and honoured to be asked to give input about the components of the machine. When the final specifications were given to us, and the first development kits arrived, we were really happy that we’d chosen to work on it!


Have Sega got a winner here?

Yes, we think so. It’s got a lot of things going for it – it’s a nice, developer-friendly environment to work with, the development tools are reliable, efficient and relatively cheap, and it’s been released at a price that’s well within even the ‘impulse purchase’ range of many people’s pockets! With the games that are coming out, and the capability that’s still to be discovered within the machine, there’s a lot for Sega to smile about!


How do you think the launch of the Dreamcast has done? What have Sega got to do to keep up this success?

Great! With over 3.5 million machines out there already, that can’t be bad! To keep the momentum going, they’ve got to keep a steady stream of top-notch games coming out. However, if you look at the number of new titles being announced each week, we think they’ve got that base covered too.


What do you think the Dreamcast’s best features are?

From a purely selfish point of view, it’s got to be the ease of development, and the power that’s still there to discover in the machine. But in a market perspective, it’s got to be the affordable Internet capability, as that’s something which is taking gaming to the next generation for those who haven’t experienced it before.


Are there any things you’d change about the Dreamcast, now you’ve got to know it?

We’d probably add a couple of extra buttons on the controller, maybe, and also it’d be good to have the orange swirl here in Europe as well, but you can’t have everything!


How is the Dreamcast to program for? Is it much different from other consoles you’ve worked on?

It’s extremely easy to set up, and equally user-friendly to program for. It’s really as low level as you want it to be as well. PC developers can choose to use the familiar Windows CE environment, and console developers may be more comfortable with Sega’s flexible ‘Kamui’ libraries. And if you want to go to grass roots level to hit the hardware, you can do that too.


What is a Dreamcast development kit – what does it look like and how do you program for it?

The development kit is a small cream-coloured box, similar to a small PC. It has a GD drive to allow you to access and test GD-ROM’s and is connected to a PC via the SCSI port. Basically, the programmer will write code on the PC using whichever code editor they prefer, and then use the Hitachi compiler and Codescape run the code, sending it down the cable to the dev kit. The dev kit has its own monitor or TV, which will then display what’s being run. The Dev Kit also has its own hard drive to emulate making a GD of the game.


What programs do the Artists use, and what languages do the programmers use to develop for Dreamcast?

The artists are using SoftImage for modelling, PhotoShop for texturing and our own in-house game package called ‘MetGP’ for placing additional information such as game data, circuit splines, cameras etc. into the game.

The programmers use C and SH4 Assembler languages to code in, and are using Sega’s Kamui development environment for the Dreamcast.


How much of the Dreamcast’s power are you using for Metropolis?

Oh, it’s that old chestnut again! A machine’s ‘power’ is something which constantly changes, the more you get to use it. Development is a learning experience, and so the ‘maximum power’ goalposts keep moving. It’s like when you first learn to ice skate, you’re slow, and don’t know many tricks, but the more you practice and experiment, the better you get!

No-one sets out to try and ‘only use 65% of the machine’ – we all try as hard as we can to get the most out AT THAT POINT IN TIME. So we’re going to be using as much power as we know how to squeeze out of the machine at the moment, but as for the future, just watch this space!


Is there much power left in the machine? Will games continue to amaze us again and again?

Yup. Look at the Megadrive as an example. Just when you thought there was nothing left in it, out came Toy Story with it’s amazing 3D engine section! And what about the PlayStation – remember how we all were bowled over by Gran Tourismo when it first came out? Dreamcast has plenty left to offer, and we’re all still learning – just wait and see…..


How will Dreamcast fare against the next batch of consoles coming out – the PlayStation 2, the X-box and the Dolphin?

Very well, we feel. There’s room for more than one console in the marketplace, and even if the other machines prove to have more power,  Dreamcast has some very nice features which should keep it in the running.



What about the Future?

Will there be a Metropolis 2? If so, can you give us any information about it?

It’s something we’d be keen on doing, yes, and we hope Sega will be up for it too. But can you let us get the first one finished before we start thinking about the possibility of a second one please?!


What other games have Bizarre got planned for the future?

We’ve got Fur Fighters coming out on Dreamcast pretty close to the time that Metropolis is due out. We’ll be developing the Fur Fighters series some more, and have also got some other ideas that we’re thinking about too.


Will you be sticking with Dreamcast?

Yes. Although we’re still a multi-format developer, we know that Dreamcast has a great deal to offer, and it’s really made a mark in the marketplace. We’ve got no plans of dropping Dreamcast at all in the foreseeable future.


Where do you see Bizarre Creations being in five years time?

Probably in a slightly bigger building, although we’re not planning on expanding hugely.  If the current office is anything to go by, we’ll have even more arcade machines, every flavour of pot noodle possible in the snack cupboard, real sleeping quarters rather than the camp beds we’ve got now, and thousands of ‘happy meal’ toys taking over everyone’s desks!

In terms of games, we could well be on ‘Metropolis 6 – the RPG’ and ‘Fur Fighters 8 – the Dancing Simulator’. Dreamcast 2 with interactive neural probes will be released and we’ll also still be talking about ‘doing another F1 game at some time, but not quite now’.…!!


What’s going to happen in this ‘next-generation’ of video game consoles?

Oh, if we all knew that, then it wouldn’t make the debates so much fun! It looks like this year there’s going to be two next-generation consoles which will be battling for supremacy – but each has different things to offer, and they could easily exist side-by-side in the same way that the SNES did with the Megadrive/Genesis. So that would be good news for gamesplayers!


And what’s going to happen in the future of video games?

Who knows!! Hopefully games will ultimately become interactive films or sports, and we can all play out our ultimate fantasies in gloriously high detail. As next-generation consoles become dominant, we should to see bigger, better and deeper evolutions in the genres we know and love, and exciting new genres being developed for us all to explore. 


Bizarre Creations - February 2000

Hi-res Artwork
As the name (and the images) suggests, these are computer generated images designed to give an artist's impression of the game. One or two of these might be familiar - the image featuring the white car (the first image below) was used for the cover of issue 3 of the Official UK Dreamcast Magazine. One of these appears to feature an early vehicle design, too. Pretty sure these haven't been published online previously.
Screenshots
Finally, we have some screens provided by Bizarre Creations for publication in magazines. There are literally hundreds of these, all categorised by city (London, Tokyo and San Francisco) and show a variety of lighting effects and special effects. Some of the effects shown are actually different in the final build of the game, and there are a couple that show advertising boards (most notable is the Sega logo with Sonic the Hedgehog) that weren't in the final game, either.
Feel free to share these images, but please give credit if you do. Once again, thanks go to our mysterious benefactor and if the promise of further unseen Dreamcast-related discoveries comes to bear fruit then we have some exciting things to look forward to!

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Dreamcastnoid Gets Mini CD Retail Release

October 2, 2017, 3:38 am
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Back in 2016, DCJAM invited homebrew coders to let their imaginations run wild and create a host of new and original games for the Dreamcast. One of these was Dreamcastnoid: 128 Bit Wars from Alfonso Martinez. The game is a humorous homage to Arkanoid, with players controlling a VMU and smashing PlayStation 2 consoles with a ball, and we took a closer look at the downloadable version when it was released for public consumption.
The artwork is great
Mr Yukawa's been hitting the gym, evidently...
Fast forward to the present day, and Dreamcastnoid: 128 Bit Wars has been updated with new graphics, cool artwork, some new music and is now destined to be given a physical release. The most interesting thing about this new release is that it will come on a mini CD, and represents the first time a Dreamcast game has been released in this format (the oddly shaped music CD that comes with some versions of Guilty Gear X doesn't count!).
Segata Sanshiro makes an appearance too
A massive coin...or a tiny disc?
Dreamcastnoid: 128 Bit Wars will be available to purchase at RetroBarcelona in limited quantities for €15 and will hopefully be available to purchase online in the coming weeks. More info as we get it.

For more details (in Spanish), head over to SegaSaturno here.
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A Quick Look At Centipede

October 5, 2017, 12:57 pm
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Centipede for the Dreamcast is a curious title for a couple of reasons. It's part of what is, for all intents and purposes, a sort of trilogy of retro reboots that includes two other properties with roots in the very early days of gaming - Q*bert and Frogger. While there are several retro collections for the Dreamcast in the form of Namco Museum, Sega Smash Pack, Yu Suzuki Game Works, Atari Anniversary Edition, Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits 1 & 2 and Jimmy White's 2: Cueball, none of these titles feature complete re-imaginings of the classic titles contained therein.
No, Centipede, Q*bert and Frogger are unique in that they introduce updated visuals, new modes and - most notably in the case of Centipede - totally new gameplay mechanics. Interestingly, all three of these titles come from the Hasbro Interactive/Atari mash-up that was borne out of the acquisition of the latter by the former, however for the sake of this being 'a quick look at...' we're only going to focus on the most radically redesigned of the three - Centipede.
Released in 2000 by Hasbro Interactive masquerading as Atari and developed by Leaping Lizard Software, Centipede is a modern take on the classic game of the same name that was released to much critical and commercial success back in 1980. Having only been born in 1982, I don't actually remember the initial arcade release of Centipede, but over the years I've played plenty of variations on the formula and I'm sure you have too. Naturally, coming from an era when hardware was less graphically capable than what we have today, Centipede featured basic visuals but had one very simple premise that was replicated in many titles of the period - shoot the enemies, get a high score...and survive the onslaught.

As a nice introduction for gamers who might never have experienced the original Centipede, the Dreamcast version (which was also released on the PC and PlayStation a couple of years earlier in 1998) also includes a port of the arcade game that is accessible straight from the off. You don't need to unlock it or use a code, it's simply there in the options menu and it's probably a good idea to go and investigate this version of the game first before you try the updated interpretation, simply because it will teach you the basic objective and rules - many of which remain intact in the newer iteration.

Before jumping into the meat of how Centipede 2000 plays, I thought it was worth discussing the availability of this game. As previously mentioned, Centipede was never released outside of the US by Hasbro Interactive, and curiously the other two titles in the pseudo series weren't either. The only Dreamcast versions of Centipede, Q*bert and Frogger (well, Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge) are NTSC-U. There is no PAL release and no NTSC-J port of either. I find this especially odd since the original games (and all the innumerable clones) were immensely popular in Europe, and the PC and PlayStation versions were released in PAL regions. I'm not sure how well they would have been received in Japan, but if these titles had been released in blue packaging I'm sure they would have done quite well, even in the face of the mixed import reviews. On the same topic, it's pretty interesting that only one of the classic game collections mentioned in the opening paragraph of this article was released in PAL territories. Food for thought.
Anyway, lets get back to Centipede. I really didn't know much about this version of the game before it came in the mail (it cost me £10 from eBay); apart from the fact that it features 3D polygonal graphics in place of the single screens of sprites as seen in the original. It was with trepidation then that I fired up the main single player campaign and was met with one of the worst CG cutscenes I think I've ever seen in a Dreamcast game. It's up there with the spectacular mess that is The Ring: Terror's Realm, and I wish I was joking. The cutscene attempts to add some back story to the adventure and while it performs its function, you'll never want to sit through it again. The story is pretty standard stuff - evil insects have sprung forth from the bowels of the planet to hark the call of the evil and eponymous Centipede. These mindless insects will stop at nothing until they have claimed the planet for themselves...by randomly jumping around and making mushrooms grow everywhere. A solid battle plan if ever I saw one.

As ever, the surface dwelling folk are terrified of the threat of these marauding beasts and centipedes, so they design a floating tank to kill the bugs and recruit/kidnap you to pilot it. Entering the various themed worlds, you are given a basic set of objectives, such as rescuing all the citizens milling about the land, or protecting various important structures. Once you get into the game proper, it's all very easy to grasp and the basic gameplay is actually pretty enjoyable.
Triggers are used to strafe the anti-bug vehicle, the analogue stick is used to turn, A is fire, the d-pad is used to switch views and the B button is used to deploy a secondary power-up or weapon. Once you get to grip with the controls, you take the fight to the insect menace by negotiating the randomly generated maze of destructible toadstools that litter the environment, blasting centipedes (that split into two or three if you hit them in the middle) and the other weird and wonderful monsters that have been belched forth from the lesser-trodden subterranean caverns beneath your feet.

The levels appear quite small and claustrophobic initially, but after a while you'll realise that upon defeating a certain number of waves, previously blocked paths will open up or bridges will be lowered. Some of the stages are actually pretty good looking, with a great use of colour and surrealist design. Obviously, Centipede for the Dreamcast is a port of a PC and PlayStation release from 1998 - and it shows - but for an update of a classic arcade title it could have been much worse. There are plenty of special effects and nice weapon pyrotechnics, and the inclusion of a first person view almost turns Centipede into an FPS...almost. For the most part though, Centipede is perfectly acceptable visually and actually reminded me of fodder like Tonic Trouble for the N64 and Rayman 2. Don't get me wrong - it's certainly not on the same level as Rayman 2, it just has a faint whiff of it.
The ability to change perspectives from a familiar overhead camera, to an over-the-shoulder to a first person viewpoint is a great bonus, and undoubtedly helps when you are trying to target airborne enemies or need to locate a ledge or pathway that isn't immediately apparent from a bird's eye view. Furthermore, the aerial viewpoint is great for when the action heats up as you progress through the stages and worlds - sometimes the levels are absolutely chock full with enemies and only quick reactions will save your skin, especially since the firing mechanic from the original game is retained. See, you can only fire one projective at once and until your previously fired shot has hit a target or a wall, you can't fire again. Makes for some interesting gameplay when you've got one quick moving enemy heading towards you and you need to line the perfect shot up, I can tell you.

As well as your standard blaster, you can collect upgrades and special weapons and bombs, and you also have the ability to jump short distances in your little tank thing. Shields and short-lived blaster upgrades can also help you in your fight against the insect swarm, but ultimately it is your ability to react quickly to incoming enemies that will allow you to fight another day.
The long and short of it is that Centipede was something of a surprise for me. I went into it not really expecting much but as far as ports go, it's not bad. Not bad at all. The gameplay is frantic, if a little basic and it can actually be (rather oddly) quite relaxing to just chill out with. Collect some weapons, shoot some centipedes in the face, rescue some druids...can't really beat it with a couple of beers.

Don't go into this expecting top-drawer graphics and 'triple A' production values and you'll have fun, that's a guarantee. That it also contains the original Centipede is a great bonus too.

What do you think? Have you played Centipede? If so, did you enjoy it or do you think it's a steaming great turd not fit to grace the Dreamcast? Let us know in the comments or join the discussion on Twitter or Facebook.

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The Awesome Dreamcast Kiosks & Display Cases We Never Saw

October 5, 2017, 11:16 pm
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Kiosks were - and still are - a major part of any console's armoury when trying to woo potential buyers. Go into any game store these days and you'll undoubtedly see a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One set up and running demos. The same was true back in the days of the Dreamcast, and I have fond memories of playing Virtua Striker 2 in HMV one afternoon back in 2000.

Dreamcast Kiosks come in a number of guises, and they vary wildly from region to region. The ones I'm most familar with though, are the UK PAL-styled ones that adorned branches of Electronics Boutique and GAME, drawing me in with their glowing CRT screens and untold promise of 128-bit gaming, the likes of which I'd never seen before. Obviously they worked a treat on me (hence this place existing), but now we have something pretty special to share with you.
Here are some exclusive, never-before-seen computer generated images of the kiosks and in-store display cases that Sega Europe was intending to deploy across the continent with the aim of enticing the average gamer to part with cold, hard cash for a Dreamcast.

Some of them look pretty familiar, but others are new even to me...

This one you've probably seen and maybe even own. This is the standard Dreamcast kiosk that was used in most stores and launch events. Containing a single CRT TV screen, a Dreamcast console inside the clear perspex bubble, and two controllers held in place by rigid wire protectors.
Next we have the design for the lightbox that sits atop most PAL-style kiosks and display units. I almost snagged one of these a few years ago at an event, but it had no plug or bulb and the seller wanted silly money so I told him to shove it. In the nicest possible way, you understand. Um.

Following on from the lightbox and standard kiosk, we have three variants of displays that house those infamously fragile PAL game cases. One is a simple single-width shelving unit, and the other is a double unit. The third is a monstrous thing housing two central kiosks and several shelving units full of games. Pretty sure I never saw one of these gargantuan units in the wild back during the Dreamcast's natural lifespan. The best bit is that if you click on the images and zoom in, the Dreamcasts are playing Daytona USA 2 and the 'games' have some rather weird placeholder images - Riven: The Sequel to Myst being the standout...
Now things get even more interesting. Here we have a display podium that has no screen but looks like it was intended to simply show off the design of the Dreamcast console. It's quite intriguing that the console itself has an orange swirl, even though the base unit has a familiar blue one. Again, I can't recall ever seeing one of these in reality, but if this does exist please let us know.
Following on from the podium, we have this display case that is labelled as 'Top 10.' I'm guessing the intention with this case was that the top ten games in the Dreamcast chart for a particular week or month would be displayed within, letting Dreamcast owners know which titles were the most popular at the time. Again, I never saw one of these.
Finally, we have this interesting little counter top unit that's labelled 'CD dispenser.' Once again, I never saw anything like this in any of the game stores I visited back in the days of the Dreamcast, and I lived in a major city (Manchester) at the time so if this wasn't deployed there...then where was it? If at all? I'm guessing it never did see the light of day but it's still a fascinating glimpse at the type of thing Sega Europe had planned for the games stores across the continent.
Thanks for these images go to a person who once again wishes to remain anonymous, but I'm sure they're reading this...so thank you.

Thoughts on these? Did you see any of the stranger ones in the wild...or own them? Let us know in the comments, on Twitter or on Facebook.
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Preview: Intrepid Izzy

October 7, 2017, 9:43 am
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Recently we reported on the new Kickstarter campaign from Senile Team, the same studio behind one of the Dreamcast's greatest indie titles - Rush Rush Rally Racing. The new project, Intrepid Izzy is a side scrolling platformer featuring the eponymous heroine Izzy, and tasks the player with battling through a number of worlds, destroying enemies and collecting power ups. Pretty standard fayre for a side-scrolling platformer, I'm sure you'll agree.
Where Intrepid Izzy differs though, is that as well as being a platformer, the game introduces mechanics more commonly found in fighting games, and as such Izzy has a decent array of offensive moves at her disposal, as well as various specials that are activated using combinations of the D-pad and attack buttons. On top of this, different costumes available to Izzy grant her a range of abilities and moves with which to hand out ass whuppings on a case by case basis.

How do I know all this? Well, because I've been lucky enough to have played a demo version supplied by Senile Team. The screens dotted around this post - and the video below - are from an early demo and go to show just how good the game looks and plays, even at this early stage. Running on an actual Dreamcast (no emulators were used in the production of this article!), it's fair to say that Intrepid Izzy looks and sounds pretty damn incredible.


The animation of the main Izzy sprite alone puts many indie games developed for current gen systems to shame, while the general bright and well-drawn backgrounds, enemy sprites and incidental environmental details are simply gorgeous. But the beauty isn't just skin deep with Intrepid Izzy. The various NPCs you encounter have some pretty funny things to say, the levels have branching paths, the music is delightfully hummable and the controls are totally on point and perfectly responsive - something that is imperative for a game of this style.
The game, as stated, is still in the very early stages of development and the Kickstarter campaign is still ongoing (full disclosure - I've already backed it and so have several other members of the DCJY team), but even at this early stage it looks like Senile Team have another winner on their hands.

Hopefully, the Kickstarter will reach its modest €35,000 target and the game will get a full physical release, and judging from what I've played so far it would be criminal if Intrepid Izzy didn't get the backing it so clearly deserves.
Check out the Intrepid Izzy official website here, Pcwzrd's longer playthrough of the demo version here, and find the Intrepid Izzy Kickstarter page here.
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Falling In Love Again...

October 12, 2017, 1:15 pm
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Where my Dreamcast collection was headed..
If you read my last post here at the Junkyard, you'll know that I had transitioned from an obsessive Dreamcast collector/hoarder of extreme proportions, to what one might term a 'retro dismissive.'
My retro gaming passion was not quite extinguished, but had definitely been dampened by the availability of a raft of downloadable Dreamcast titles on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. It meant I could lazily access enough Dreamcast titles from my current consoles (initially the Xbox 360, and later the PS3), to ensure that I was getting my fix of retro Sega endorphins from a different source than the undead console.

Another factor in my gradual distance from the Dreamcast, was the fact that I'd been retro gaming for a number of years by this time. I had overwhelmed myself, flooded my brain receptors with more  nostalgic video gaming than it could handle. I'd purchased dirty little 'side collections,' for the Sega Saturn, the Sega Game Gear, The Sega Master System. As well as these, I'd played a ton of PlayStation 2 games, many of them stunning and of course unavailable on the Dreamcast; with Virtua Fighter 4 and the first two Yakuza games helping me through the Shenmue wilderness years.
Not actually Father K, or Simon Early for that matter...

Now I was ready to tap into the current gen, a situation I'd barely experienced in all of my gaming life. I was never an 'at launch' guy; had never experienced the 'excitement' of a midnight GAME opening, or rushed home to unbox and test out a brand new system. Both my pre-Dreamcast Megadrive and Saturn were bought well into the consoles' life cycles - almost at their death knell. I'd missed the Dreamcast completely -  launch, life...and death!
For the first time with my 360 and PS3, I was buying games as they came out. The excitement of the launch of Resident Evil 5 for example, or the thrill of playing Virtua Fighter 5 - particularly online (something I'd never done on the Dreamcast, incidentally) - were cementing my distance from the console I'd once championed to any poor sap who had the misfortune to catch my internet ravings.

All my Dreamcast stuff was in the loft, bundled away by an over-zealous grown-up son, who was trying to score brownie points with his mother by decorating the living room, my former gaming nerve centre. My initial fury had subsided. A lot of frankly unused and unappreciated games had been cleared away. I'd always only played a fraction of my Dreamcast repertoire with any regularity, and herein lay another problem - I'd bought the majority of my games in bulk for the grand sum of £2.50; a lot of decent titles received five minutes sceptical/cynical play and were then consigned to the shelf to gather dust. Now they were consigned to the loft...to obscurity and to fading memory.
But even in those wilderness years, I couldn't let go. I know this, because even though I didn't always have a Dreamcast connected to my TV, I always had one at arm's length. At times when I needed the reassurance of familiar experiences, like when I came out form hospital after heart surgery, the Dreamcast would be hooked up, and Shenmue would be played. Games were bought, if not played. DUX, Alice Dreams, Sturmwind. I know that I must have stumbled across them, and felt the need to buy them, even though I knew I had little interest in them. Why? Why was it thatI couldn't let go?

Then something miraculous happened. There was an announcement by Yu Suzuki. He would be seeking crowd funding for a Kickstarter project to gauge interest in Shenmue 3 on the PS4.
Gauge interest. Are you fricking kidding us, Yu? I couldn't have been more interested! Of course, I signed up straight away...and then Google started sending me articles about Shenmue 3. One stating that The Dreamcast Junkyard would be doing a podcast celebrating the resurrection of the Dreamcast's most iconic intellectual property...!

The Dreamcast Junkyard? My old blogging mentors and retro gurus? I had to listen. And listen I did! Now I might tear up at this bit, it kind of gets me right there...but it was as I was listening to the Podcast that I - as my old blogging persona 'Father Krishna' - got a mention, as American DCJY correspondent Caleb Moshier recounted the tale of me sending him Shenmue 2 across the Atlantic many years ago. I was genuinely thrilled to be remembered once more in the hallowed halls of The Dreamcast Junkyard. Quick correspondence ensued, and I was welcomed back into the bosom of the family straight away, attending a podcast Awards ceremony that the 'Yard had been nominated for, with DCJY founder Tom Charnock!

At this point,  one of my many Dreamcasts was clumsily wired up into the tangle of spaghetti at the back of my TV. Sturmwind and Alice Dreams started replacing my current gen gaming choices...Shenmue had to be played again due to the excitement of the Yu Suzuki announcement. The Dreamcast began to make sense as a gaming choice again. It had given me in Shenmue the most perfect gaming experience any console had ever offered me. And I had literally dozens and dozens of games waiting, virtually un-played, in plastic boxes in a room upstairs in my house...
A rescue mission was needed and before I knew it, an opportunity would arise from the same source that had  banished my Dreamcast collection to the loft: my lovely room-decorating son. This summer he redecorated my bedroom as my wife and I toured the US for our 25th wedding anniversary. I arrived home to find the TV mounted to the wall and a coffee table underneath. This was for the explicit purpose of housing my consoles. There was now draw and shelf space available for my software...
Bit by bit, without the awareness of my wife, I began to sneak stuff out of the loft and back down into my bedroom. And here are the lovely results: I now have a full repertoire of games to reconsider and put some serious play time into. There's still boxes and boxes of stuff trapped in the loft. At least four boxed up Dreamcasts, some as new with all of the packaging, pamphlets and peripherals, unblemished or yellowed by time. There are steering wheels, fishing rods, keyboards, maracas, multi-coloured controllers, light guns and even a CRT TV to play them on. It's still not the ideal collection, the type you'll see splashed across these pages, alphabetically catalogued and beautifully displayed; but it's functional and accessible, and I'm about to enter into that passionate affair once again, only this time without the potential divorce inducing spending sprees!
The first game that I played with fresh eyes was Super Runabout, a game that I had always thought inferior to Crazy Taxi. I now consider it to be one of the most pleasurable driving experiences to be had on the Dreamcast. What other revelations lie ahead...?
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POD 2 Is Back Online

October 13, 2017, 2:59 pm
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Hey there. Just me again. Erm...there's another online Dreamcast game back online and this time it's POD 2 (you'll know it as POD: Speedzone if you're from the colonies). Personally I've only ever played POD 2 offline, and always considered it to be an absolute dog's dinner of a game; but thanks to the skills bestowed upon code guru Shuouma, said game is now back online:


According to this article and video over at Dreamcast Live, the usual cost of entry is a DreamPi or a lesser spotted Dreamcast broadband adapter, plus a copy of the game (obviously); but I for one am hoping that the ability to play against other, real people will enhance the experience of POD 2. If the experience offered by Monaco Online is anything to go by then I'm pretty sure any fears of mediocrity will be quelled after about 30 seconds of play...but one can never be too sure. All joking aside, it's actually pretty incredible that online-enabled Dreamcast games are being brought back from the dead and I'm looking forward to trying POD 2 out during one of the regular Dreamcast-Talk gaming nights.

I suggest you grab a DreamPi or a BBA and get involved too. See you out on the track...

Source: Dreamcast Live

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The Mr Yukawa Dreamcast TV Commercials Have Been Translated

October 15, 2017, 4:10 am
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You. You there, reading this nonsense right now. Yes you! Do you know who Mr Yukawa is? Of course you do - he's the total legend of a bloke who not only ran Sega Japan back in the day (or something), but also had his image festooned across all manner of Dreamcast clobber once upon a time. He was also in the Shenmue bonus disc (read about it here) and even had his own Dreamcast game (read about it here). Mr Yukawa became something of an icon for Sega in his home country, and was the star of a series of TV commercials for the Dreamcast but until very recently these adverts were only available in their native tongue.

Enter Mr Jim M. Ballard, a polyglot with - by his own admission - far too much free time on his hands. The devil, it is said, makes work for these idle hands but we would vehemently disagree - especially since Jim turned said appendages to adding English subtitles to the entire series of Mr Yukawa Dreamcast adverts:


You can find the rest of the series here in Jim's YouTube playlist. Thanks to this dedication, the anglophones in the room can now also share the epic ups and downs of Mr Yukawa's struggle to make Sega great again.

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Cave Story: The Dreamcast's Subterranean Gem

October 16, 2017, 1:32 pm
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What's in a name? Quite a bit, actually. While some games available for the Dreamcast have pretty descriptive titles - Crazy Taxi, for example - others are sure to leave uninitiated gamers scratching their heads in confusion. Blue Stinger. Giant Killers. Cannon Spike. These are but a trio of games with titles that really don't give any hint as to the experience contained on the GD. Cave Story though? Well, just like the game that involves driving a cab around in a fairly unorthodox manner, the title of this particular piece of software perfectly sums up what the game is all about. You go on an adventure...in a cave. Simple. But what even is Cave Story? And when the heck did this game appear on the Dreamcast? Grab your head torches and guide ropes, and I'll explain.
See, Cave Story is a side-scrolling, rogue-like platform adventure set in a labyrinthine complex of weird and wonderful caves. There are hit points, NPCs to interactive with, fetch quests to embark upon, and all manner of weird enemies to engage in combat with; and the whole game has a charming pixel art style which is complimented by an outstanding chip tune soundtrack. The origins of Cave Story make for an interesting read, with the initial PC release coming in 2004. Since then developer Daisuke Amaya has gone on to create a plethora of critically acclaimed games; and Cave Story has been ported to an astonishing range of systems, one of which just happens to be the good old Dreamcast. The Dreamcast port came in 2013 thanks to the work of programmer 'histat,' when Cave Story's NXEngine was completely re-written specifically for Sega's hardware and a couple of variations of the game were released in different flavours. Namely as an SD card ISO file, and as a burnable disc image.
I have to be honest, when Cave Story came to the Dreamcast in 2013 I didn't really give it much attention and dismissed it - wrongly - as just another crappy-looking homebrew game. So what changed between then and now? Well, firstly I'm no longer an idiot (allegedly); and secondly the recent rise in popularity of games with a distinctly 8 or 16-bit visual aesthetic has really made me appreciate this style of game a lot more than I probably did in the past. Thirdly - and most importantly - I recently spotted a physical, boxed copy of Cave Story on eBay for less than the price of a trip to the cinema, so I jumped at the chance to own it.
The copy I have acquired is clearly the work of a dedicated Dreamcast fan who also happens to own a decent printer and a had a spare PAL game case to hand. There's no manual, but the CD does have some nice bespoke artwork and the front and back covers could easily pass for a proper retail release. Even though the game is actually free to download, the fact that the work of putting it into a case and adding disc art had already been done made the nominal fee a price worth paying...

If you're reading this and the name Cave Story sounds familiar, its because the game was recently released on the Nintendo Switch as Cave Story+, a sort of re-master of the original with new artwork and assets specifically designed for Nintendo's sexy new hybrid console. As stated earlier, Cave Story is also available for a host of other retro and contemporary systems, including the Wii, PSP, Xbox and Nintendo 3DS. But how does the game play on the Dreamcast and what's it all about? Luckily, I can answer both of these questions having played it for quite some time.
Unfortunately though, I haven't played Cave Story on any other platforms so I can't really compare it to other ports, but what I can do is tell you what I liked about the Dreamcast version, and what's not so great. So, first things first - how does it play? If you've already experienced Cave Story you'll probably want to skip this paragraph as you'll already know most of what I'm about to say (type). You basically assume the role of a little cluster of pixels masquerading as a bloke, and you run and jump around the stylised caves, all the while shooting nasties with your various guns, avoiding various hazards, collecting health boosts and interacting with the myriad citizens who happen to call the massive cave complex home. You'll venture into all manner of bizarre locations, with lakes, farms, science labs, villages etc all represented; and there's a ton of backtracking to previous locations and lots and lots of puzzles to solve. Oh, and you'll die. A lot.

The over-arching storyline involves you becoming embroiled in the megalomaniacal plans of the evil 'Doctor,' and attempting to thwart his attempts to take over the world. I won't go into too much detail lest you've yet to play Cave Story in any of its guises, but rest assured that the story gets pretty weird, and the character interactions raise a smile on most occasions.
The sense of humour and multiple choice conversations are a real highlight in Cave Story, and you can choose to completely avoid conflict in certain situations just by selecting the right answers to questions asked of you. The subterranean world through which you travel is brilliantly conceived, and the multitude of enemy types, power-ups and collectable items is mind blowing. I haven't actually finished Cave Story at the time of writing this feature (hence why I'm not calling it a review!), but I've spent hours traversing caverns, being killed by baddies and investigating all the oddness in the game world.
Even little incidental background objects can be interrogated, and sometimes seemingly innocuous level furniture can yield awesome surprises. The weapon system is quite cool too - killing enemies will cause glowing golden triangles (or Doritos, as I like to call them) to erupt from the exploding corpse and collecting these while holding a certain weapon will increase its power level. Obviously, this makes the weapon much more effective, but getting hit by enemies also has a degrading effect on your health and weapon power. Imagine the system in Sturmwind where weapons equal lives, and you're kind of on the right track.


Sadly, Cave Story for Dreamcast isn't perfect and there's a definite feeling that this isn't as polished a port as it could have been with a full studio behind it. Not that I'm complaining, but if you go into Cave Story expecting something bordering on perfection, you'll be a little bit disappointed. The Dreamcast version does have a somewhat erratic frame rate in places, and while the music is utterly, utterly brilliant (see the Soundcloud player above for further details), this Dreamcast port has an odd glitch where the music sort of 'skips' when the player enters a new area or goes through a door or portal. Traversing the various forum discussions regarding Cave Story for Dreamcast, some of these issues appear to be resolvable by turning off the music in order to enhance the frame rate and reduce the impact of other issues, but for me the music is one of the best bits so it's a tough thing to remove from the overall experience. Elsewhere, it seems that the SD card ISO file is a little bit hit and miss when it comes to stability, meaning that it crashes regularly. The burnable CD image is the one to go for in this case.
Other than these minor hiccups though (and there are apparently later revisions which have these issues ironed out), Cave Story is a triumph. There's so much game here, and (if you just download it) it's totally free to enjoy. There's full VMU support for saving your progress, the controls can be mapped properly to the Dreamcast controller or the Dreamcast keyboard, and there are even dedicated display modes so you can get the best picture for your set up - I'm using the VGA option combined with the Akura HDMI box and it looks awesome on an LCD television.
Basically, everyone who owns a Dreamcast should endeavour to grab Cave Story and play it. It really is a fabulous game and even with the minor performance problems it doesn't really detract from the overall experience. Cave Story is a charming little game, and if you haven't previously experienced it on other platforms, there's no excuse not to get the free Dreamcast version.
Cave Story Dreamcast Resources
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A Strange Bizarre Creations CD Appears...

October 18, 2017, 3:34 am
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We've covered Metropolis Street Racer with alarming regularity in the recent past, looking at some cool locations and trackside details you may have missed; the mystery of the hidden missing persons posters and finally the treasure trove of development images and press releases we were sent by a mysterious benefactor. If you've never heard of MSR, it's a racing game set in three cities around the world and spawned the seminal Xbox series Project Gotham Racing. Also, what are you doing here if you've never heard of MSR? Go and play it!

Anyway, said mysterious benefactor has once again bequeathed The Dreamcast Junkyard with a fairly esoteric item related - we think - in some way to Metropolis Street Racer, and here it is:
As you can see, it's a CD case. The cover shows a bunch of car keys with a Dreamcast logo on the keyring, and the date '30.03.99,' which equates to the 30th March 1999 by UK date standards. Or any standard come to think of it, there only being 12 months and all.

The spine of the case has a sticker with 'Invitation Cover 9.3.99' written in biro (bit of an inconsistency there, Columbo fans):
The CD-R itself has 'Invitation Cover 9/3/99 Bizarre Creations Confidential' written on it in marker:
The back of the case is empty so there's no other detail as to how or why this thing exists, and delving into the contents of the CD itself, there aren't really any other clues to work with:
There are Quark Xpress, PhotoShop and TIFF files, along with a TrueType font file; and the image files are basically just the image from the font cover - a bunch of car keys and the date 30.09.1999 (well, the PSD file does - the TIFF is free of a date). Note: I can't open the Quark Xpress file because the last known person to use Quark Xpress vanished up his own backside 9 years ago and has never been seen since.
Quite what this date means and what the 'invitation' is for, I'm not totally sure but cross referencing this date with the MSR development diary we published a while back could shed some light. See, the penultimate entry in the dev diary is from 29th January 1999, and this passage references an upcoming demonstration of MSR to some 'Sega VIPs':

"Last week was the week of the big telly. We have to demo the game to some Sega VIPs next week, and showing it on a little 15" monitor or a 14" portable TV wasn't really showing it at its full potential. So we went out and got a HUGE 29" TV, which really makes it look cool! Matt (the Lead Coder) has it weighing down his desk and giving him eyestrain at the moment!"

The dates don't line up perfectly, but there in the same ball park so I'm guessing that the artwork on the CD-R, plus the use of the word 'invitation' has something to do with the previewing of MSR to various Sega bigwigs.
So, not the most Earth-shattering of items and nothing as exciting as the confidential press disk (from which the image above is from - see here), but I'm sure you'll agree that it is pretty interesting to see something like this which was never intended for public consumption. Thanks go once again to the nameless benefactor supplying us with all these goodies!

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The Email That Signalled The End Of The Dreamcast

October 20, 2017, 7:01 am
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We recently looked at the steady trickle of press releases that were delivered to media outlets, in which Sega's plans to reposition itself as a third party developer and publisher were revealed. As much as we champion the birth and life of the Dreamcast, the demise of the console and the afterlife which is almost entirely fan-supported is also our bread and butter here at the Junkyard, and sometimes we find ourselves privy to stuff that the public probably wouldn't ever get to see. With this in mind, let us turn our attention to something rather awesome: the actual email that was sent out by Sega of America Director of Development Technology John Byrd, in which the death of the Dreamcast was all but confirmed.

I'm pretty sure that this email has never been published online, and while the middle section is just the standard press release I'm sure you've seen before, the introductory section and - most importantly - the final couple of paragraphs make for some very interesting reading. John Byrd is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience working in games and you can see the passion for the Dreamcast in his words. That said, there's a lot of stuff in here that never came to fruition - the mention of the set top box being made in partnership with Pace, for example. But this sign off is what really gave me a lump in the throat:

"If anybody has a right to be bitter about DC not becoming the dominant platform, I do. But my job and yours is to make good games for the DC. In that regard, you and I don't have a damn thing to be ashamed about."

Never a truer word said, Mr Byrd. Now, on to the (even more) juicy stuff. Here's the full email, unedited apart from the redacted parts where the recipient's details have been removed. For those who don't know, the term 'elite' was used for those on a particular mailing list - developers and publishers working with Sega on the Dreamcast project.
To make navigation easier, I've split the email into three parts with headings so you can skip past the press release if desired. I also liked the idea of highlighting certain interesting passages in a similar style to that weird-ass book House of Leaves, so that's why some of the text is highlighted in different colours. I decided against making certain paragraphs back-to-front or upside down. I'll leave that shit to Danielewski-San.

Right, grab a cuppa and settle down - this is quite lengthy but damn, is it entertaining...
Part I: The Introduction

Dear elite,

Enclosed is a press release that went over the wire this morning.  As with all press releases, there's a lot of stuff we're not mentioning.  I want to tell you the key things that are NOT public knowledge.

- There's a reduction in price imminent for the Dreamcast system in the US. Expect the price to go to $99 within the next week or so.  In the past, when we've dropped price, we've experienced a nice spike in Dreamcast sales.  It means that Dreamcast systems should be able to compete head to head with PS1 and N64 on store shelves for the next year.

- We're going to stop making new DCs in March because we have enough in inventory now (read: a LOT) to sell one to everyone who we think will want to buy one. Expect the retail channel to be full through this Christmas at least.  That means you should do what Sega is doing, e.g. develop your games to be ported across multiple consoles.

- The set-top box contains a DC chipset and a hard drive; design isn't finalized yet. Once it is we'll pass along development information to you.

Sega has been roasted by the media and the fanboys over the past month with rumors true and false.  Ironically, with the new price point DC developers and publishers stand a better chance than ever to make money selling into the DC channel.  I'm afraid that this little fact is going to get lost in the noise over Sega's "demise".

Anybody who's following the TRSTS data about videogame sales will realize that the US videogame market is contracting right now.  Those of you who've been in the industry a while have seen this happen before.  It happened in 1985, 1990 and 1996 when there were multiple game platforms simultaneously competing for consumer dollars.  I have seen several small developers bet the farm on PS2 and they're getting burned badly right now. Laying aside the religious wars about which game system is "best" for a moment, the DC is the next-gen system with the largest installed base, not PS2, not X-box and not Gamecube.  Think cross-platform and think mitigation of risk.

If anybody has a right to be bitter about DC not becoming the dominant platform, I do.  But my job and yours is to make good games for the DC.  In that regard, you and I don't have a damn thing to be ashamed about.

Sincerely,

John Byrd
Sega of America, Dreamcast

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Part II: The Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SEGA FOCUSES ON ITS CONTENT AND NETWORK STRENGTHS; AIMS TO BECOME THE WORLD'S LEADING PUBLISHER OF INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT

New Company Strategy Gives Sega a Range of Revenue Possibilities and a Path to Profitability; Poised to Become Leading Network Entertainment Company

SAN FRANCISCO - (January 30, 2001) - SegaÆ today announced it would restructure the company to capitalize on its game content -- an area that has been Sega's biggest strength for more than 40 years.  In turn, Sega will unveil a three-pronged approach -- becoming a platform-agnostic third party videogame publisher for game consoles, focusing on its advantage in the networked gaming arena, and becoming an architecture provider of the powerful Dreamcast* chip-set technology to a range of devices including the Pace Micro Technology set-top-box.  By embracing technologies including Java, Sega will also be taking advantage of different publishing channels and will deliver Sega games to Palm* handheld computers and Motorola cellular phones.  With this new strategy, Sega will be significantly broadening its accessibility to consumers and dramatically expanding its revenue possibilities, leading the company to a path of profitability.   

World's Leading Publisher of Interactive Entertainment "Sega is a company that has always dared to innovate and push this industry forward," said Peter Moore, president and COO, Sega of America.  "Sega will continue to do so with its new strategy, and the result for consumers will be what you would always expect from a 'rules-breaker' like Sega - a library of pioneering, jaw-dropping content now available any way you want to play."


Sega plans to ship more than 30 games for Dreamcast in the U.S. this year and a number for other platforms.  The first Sega games to be available on other game consoles this year will include "Virtua Fighter* 4," the "Space Channel 5*" series, the popular "Sakura Wars*" series and two titles from the "Let's Make a Sports Team" series (which has been highly successful in
Japan) for Sony PlayStation*2.  "Sonic the Hedgehog Advance*,""ChuChu Rocket! *" and "Puyo Puyo*" will ship for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. Further details on availability of these titles will be announced shortly.

Sega will continue to sell through and market the Dreamcast console and its games at retail for the next year. To help accelerate the transition of Sega from a hardware to a software company, the company has announced a new MSRP of $99.95 for Dreamcast.  The new price point becomes effective on February 4, 2001 throughout the United States and Canada ($149 CND).  In addition, Sega of America will be undergoing a company restructuring as they transform into a third party publisher. 

Sega is already well positioned to become the world's leading publisher of interactive entertainment.  The company has more than 40 years of experience in interactive entertainment, in addition to thousands of Sega developers worldwide creating quality games.  The combination of a greatly expanded installed base provided by other videogame consoles and the world's best developer talent including Yu Suzuki (creator of the "Shenmue*" and the "Virtua Fighter*" series), Yuji Naka (creator of the "Sonic the Hedgehog*"
series, "Samba de Amigo*" and "Phantasy Star Online*) and Hisao Oguchi (creator of "Crazy Taxi*" and "Virtua Tennis*"), Sega is well positioned to become the world's leading videogame publisher.

Alternative Platform Support
Sega will leverage its powerful Dreamcast technology and other technologies such as Java to further the objective of putting Sega games virtually everywhere. To that end, Sega today announced it will bring its legendary videogame content to Palm handheld computers, and announced a relationship
with Pace, a leading set-top box company.   Under the relationship with Palm, Sega will provide both on and offline games for Palm Powered* handhelds sometime this year. Sega has licensed the Dreamcast technology to Pace, which is creating a set-top box that will play Dreamcast games. Additionally, Sega also announced late last year that the company would bring Java-based games to Motorola phones this year.  

In further support of Dreamcast consumers, many of the 30 Dreamcast games shipping in the U.S. will be exclusive to the Dreamcast console. There will also be best-selling franchises such as "Sonic Adventure 2,""Crazy Taxi 2‘" and "Shenmue 2" coming to Dreamcast this year.  Dreamcast gamers can also enjoy the current library of more than 200 games including hits such as the award-winning "Shenmue," which USA Today called "one of the most immersive and gratifying games around" and the top-selling "Sega Sports* NFL 2K1" and "Crazy Taxi." 

"We have an incredible line-up, key opportunities with other non-gaming devices and a huge combined installed base worldwide for next generation platforms," continued Moore.  "With this in place, Sega is well positioned to become the world's dominant interactive software publisher and the leading network entertainment company given our online strengths."

Networked Gaming and Entertainment
With this new company strategy, Sega will not only be focusing on content, but also the company's networked gaming strengths.  Utilizing Sega.com's SegaNet* network, Sega will be able to bring network gaming to virtually any platform from other videogame consoles to other Internet devices.  SegaNet delivers additional revenue streams to the company via subscriptions, commerce and advertising.

"As Sega makes its incredible content available across multiple networked platforms and devices, SegaNet is uniquely positioned to create the world's largest game and entertainment network," said Jonathan Kaplan, chief executive officer, Sega.com.   
 
SegaNet, launched in September 2000, is the world's first high-speed, low-latency console gaming network.  The network, which already has over 200,000 user sign-ups, was designed to support multiple platforms including gaming consoles, PCs, wireless devices, and set-top boxes.  In addition, with the recent acquisition of FamilyWonder, SegaNet is poised to expand beyond gaming content to other forms of entertainment, including music and movies, as it continues to lead the industry with innovative online entertainment offerings.  

Sega's Software Heritage
Sega has been an interactive entertainment leader for more than 40 years. In fact, no other company has had more "firsts" in the $8 billion videogame market than Sega.  Sega created the first-ever arcade simulator game with "Hang On*" in 1985.  In 1990, Sega unveiled "R-360*," the first arcade game to be able to rotate 360 degrees.  In 1993, Yu Suzuki pioneered the 3D fighting game genre with "Virtua Fighter*." The year 2000 brought other industry firsts including "Seaman*," the first-ever voice recognition videogame in the U.S. and "Sega Sports* NFL 2K1," the first ever online
console videogame.   

About Sega
Sega of America is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based Sega Corporation, responsible for the development, marketing and distribution of Sega video game systems and video games in the Americas.  Sega Corporation is a nearly $2.5 billion company recognized as the industry leader in interactive digital entertainment media, offering interactive entertainment experiences both inside and outside the home.  

About Sega.com and SegaNet
Sega.com, Inc. (www.sega.com) is an online entertainment company that integrates Internet technology and innovation with over 40 years of experience in the video game industry.  Sega.com also built SegaNet (www.sega.net), the only high-speed online console gaming network and community destination for gamers that provides game users with the ultimate in speed, reliability and content.  SegaNet offers both Dreamcast and PC gamers the best in 3D multi-player games, chat, community, cheat codes, tournaments and content.  SegaNet is also a full service ISP offering everything including e-mail, high-speed Internet access and great game content to music, TV, community, movies, sports and e-commerce.  SegaNet is the one stop destination for online games and gaming related content, offering gamers a community built specifically with them in mind.

About Nintendo
Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, is the acknowledged worldwide leader in the creation of interactive entertainment. To date, Nintendo has sold more than one billion video games worldwide, has created such industry icons as MarioÆ and Donkey KongÆ and launched franchises like The Legend of ZeldaÆ and PokÈmon. Nintendo manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home video game systems, including the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy - the world's best-selling video game system. As a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in North America.

About Pace Micro Technology
Pace Micro Technology plc is a pioneer of digital technology for the home and has helped build the global market for pay television services.  Using this expertise, Pace is evolving the set-top box into a sophisticated home gateway to enable revenue-generating services for TV and the networked home.
In this networked home, the Pace home gateway is the portal for entertainment and interactive communications around the home and with the outside world.  

Pace analog and digital technology has been installed in over 11 million homes worldwide since it was founded in 1982.  The company is now actively involved in all digital platforms - satellite, terrestrial, cable, wireless and xDSL - through relationships with broadcasters, network operators and technology partners in the UK, USA, Europe, Latin America, Australasia and the Far East.  These achievements were made possible through the commitment of Pace's 1,200 strong workforce, over a third of whom are research and development engineers, dedicated to the development of digital technology for the home and small and home office markets.

Pace's head office is in Shipley West Yorkshire, with further offices in Bracknell, Cambridge, the USA and Hong Kong.  The company's shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange (PIC).  Pace's U.S. operations are based in Boca Raton, Fla. For further information, please visit Pace's web site at http://www.pacemicro.com.

About Sony Computer Entertainment
Recognized as the undisputed industry leader, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. markets the PlayStation game console and develops, publishes, markets and distributes software for the PlayStation game console and the upcoming PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system for the North American market. Based in Foster City, Calif., Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. serves as headquarters for all North American operations and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.




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Part III: The Good Stuff

Since we're all under NDA here, I can be MUCH more open describing Sega's situation to you folks than I can to the general press.  (Sega doesn't respond to rumors, right?)  Here are all the in-the-Sega-family responses to the rumors that I've heard over the past several weeks.

- No, we are not going to stop selling Dreamcast hardware for the foreseeable future. We have a large number of DC chipsets in inventory at the moment, and manufacture of those will cease for the time being.  Don't worry, everyone who wants a Dreamcast should be able to buy one.

- No, we don't have a development deal with Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo at this time. Sega has been talking to those companies specifically about our first-party games, especially for platforms that don't compete with Dreamcast.  If we do such a deal, I'll let you know. 

- No, we are not going to sell ourselves to Nintendo, nor vice versa.(Phantasy Zelda Online?)

- No, we are not giving up on Dreamcast. I think we have 100 games coming out this year.  As I write this the SOJ hardware teams are currently engineering the DC chipset into other hardware designs, such as DVD players, set-top boxes, and PCI cards.  I think you'll see more venues for developing and targeting your DC games within a year.

- No, Sega is not going away. Sega has been losing money for several years however and that means we have to change the way that we've been doing business.  We will not turn our backs on our friends.

And as long as it's just you and me talking here: I am sick and tired of all the half-facts that have been slung around about Sega recently. If you have questions about what we're doing here and how we're going about it, please feel free to send me or Serge an e-mail directly.

Sincerely,

John Byrd
Sega of America Dreamcast

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This message originated from "Byrd, John".
To unsubscribe, send e-mail to unsubscribe-elite@sega.com .
So there we are. The email that signalled that the Dreamcast was to be no more. It's pretty fascinating right? Thoughts? I'm aware that me adding all the House of Leaves references is a bit odd if you've never read the book, so feel free to view the original here (please give us a mention if you use this for your own article though). Also, this comes from a former employee of a developer aligned with the Dreamcast who asked to remain anonymous, hence the removal of all names and references to their identity or employer.

Leave us a comment or join the conversation in our Facebook group. And while you're at it, drop us a 'like' on the Facebook page, support us on Patreon or give us a follow on Twitter.

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Artist Owns Inktober With Series Of Shenmue Watercolours

October 21, 2017, 5:58 am
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Inktober is an online initiative which challenges the more artistic among us to pick up a pen (or a pencil/brush/pile of elephant dung) and create a new work for every day of the month of October. It seems to be a really popular endeavour and social media is usually awash with all manner of awesome drawings around this time every year. You can find out more about Inktober here.

The reason I bring Inktober up though, is because one rather talented artist (who also happens to be a wrestler, by the way) has been steadily tweeting watercolour renditions of scenes from Yu Suzuki's epic Shenmue. The scenes will no doubt be familiar to anyone with more than a passing interest in Ryo Hazuki's adventure, and there are lots of references to some of the more humorous aspects - as well as the more poignant moments - of the game.
Artist Joe Klander - also known by his wrestling alter ego Uncle Clutch - kindly allowed us the reproduce his sterling efforts here, and we also asked him about why he chose to bring Shenmue to life through the power of watercolours:


"When Shenmue was released I was in my first year of college. I was completely blown away by how real the town felt and how much I enjoyed following around the townspeople through their routines. I played through it again years later, afraid the charm may have worn off. However, it hadn't. 

"You know the saying "you can never go home again"? How going back to your hometown isn't the same years later. People are gone. Things have changed. I felt an odd comfort that the city in Shenmue stayed the same. I felt like the people in the game have been going about their daily lives for all those years it sat on my shelf. 

"I know how silly that sounds but I get the same feeling playing Shenmue as when my mother makes apple pie the way my grandmother used it make it. I originally played it at a time in my life when the whole future was ahead of me. Again, I know it's silly but it's a part of why it means so much to me. It even peaked my interest in Japan and I've been wrestling there on and off for the past 8 years. It's not cliche to say it really did change my life."
- Joe Klander
They really are excellent, and Joe's affection for the Shenmue series really shines in these little vignettes of daily life in Dobuita. As a side note, Joe also created the bespoke 'Dreamcast Junkyard' artwork below as a header for this very blog, and it has proudly entered the library of interchangeable header images we rotate through. Here are the rest of Joe's awesome works - be sure to give him a follow on Twitter. Click the images for full size versions, and please give credit if you reproduce these on your own site. Cheers!
What do you think? Impressed by Joe's Work? Let us know in the comments or join the discussion in our Facebook group. You can also follow us on Twitter here.

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POD 2 / POD Speedzone Online Multiplayer Highlights

October 22, 2017, 3:48 pm
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As I'm sure you're aware, POD 2 (aka POD Speedzone) is the latest Dreamcast title to be restored with its full compliment of online functions. Thanks to the stellar work of programmer Shuouma and the assistance of Pcwzrd at Dreamcast Live, POD 2 can now be enjoyed as it was meant to be - with four players battling it out over the internet, across any of the futuristic circuits that are littered with hazards and weapon pickups.
This past weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to take my Dreamcast back online via the DreamPi and get involved with an online gaming session organised by the folks from the Dreamcast-Talk forum, and I have to admit - it was pretty awesome. My only prior experience with POD 2 was in its offline guise, and I found the game to be pretty lacklustre. Chuck in a grid of human controlled adversaries though, and the game is transformed into something quite special. Below you'll find a little video detailing the session I was involved in.

Thanks to everyone who made it a really positive online gaming experience. If you'd like to know more about DreamPi or playing online with your Dreamcast, be sure to check out Dreamcast Live or the blog of Luke Benstead, creator of the DreamPi.


Thoughts? Let us know in the comments or join the discussion in our Facebook group or on Twitter.
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Atomiswave Dev Kit 'SystemX' Discovered, Contains Fragments Of Unreleased Game 'Chicago 1929'

October 26, 2017, 1:43 am
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Ah, the Atomiswave. A beloved arcade system developed by Sammy that has its roots firmly planted in the fertile foothills of the NAOMI system heartlands, the Atomiswave is viewed by many as something of an extension of the Dreamcast family - indeed, our own 'Expanding the Dreamcast Collection' series goes into great depth looking at the Atomiswave, its hardware, some of its finest games and the link to the Dreamcast family.
The Atomiswave arcade system
With this connection in mind, a recent discovery may excite those interested in both the Dreamcast and the Atomiswave - an innocuous white box that looks for all intents and purposes like a standard Dreamcast dev unit; but one with the label 'SystemX' stuck over the familiar Dreamcast logo.
The Atomiswave dev kit, SystemX
After further investigation of the SystemX, owner Brian Hargrove has deduced that this is pretty clearly a Dreamcast development unit converted into an Atomiswave development kit...and even more intriguing is that it appears to contain fragments of a game that never saw a final release - Chicago 1929. Here, Brian explains how he came to own the SystemX and what he's discovered about the technical side of things:

"The dev kit was purchased from eBay earlier this year. It wasn't listed as development or prototype, but it was obvious what it was.  It was listed as not tested with no screen activity. The power supply was faulty, but even after changing it you are met with a black screen.  It seems to only work if you manually boot it from inside the Dreamcast Tools utility of the Katana SDK.
"The original Katana's GD-Rom drive is replaced with a flash card. It plugs into the same port that the GD-Rom was installed. The Katana's BIOS Eprom has been replaced with a small PCB holding the Atomiswave BIOS along with SRAM and battery backup. From that PCB are 8 wires additional wires that are soldered directly to the Katana motherboard.
"There is also a large sub board that seems to carry all the JAMMA signals to one of the 64 pin connectors on the front. I have not looked to see if the communication cartridge pinouts are there, but I would assume so. There also is (what they label as) a JVS board that sits where the modem was on the original Katana. From what I understand a JVS add on was planned for Atomiswave, but was never been released. I have not tested the JVS functionality.
"I am only able to boot the flashed game Ranger Mission. Since no Atomiswave SDK has been released, I'm not able to flash any other game or load any GD Workshop projects like you would with a standard Katana.  The Dreamcast pad's start button is recognized, and the game does seem to want to use the official Sega Light Gun. I am having issues with the calibration settings saving though. Hopefully I'll be able to boot other games at some point to see if controllers are fully supported.
"Since the flash board is securely screwed inside the system, I can only assume they had an external flash device for programming some of the prototype carts that have been sold online. Getting to the flash board is a total pain and I doubt they dismantled the system every time they wanted to flash a game for testing on an actual AW system."
- Brian Hargrove

As stated above, one of the most interesting things to come out of this discovery is the files relating to the unreleased Chicago 1929 (here referred to by its alternative name The Roaring Twenties). Details about this game are scarce, but it appears to be a racing game set during the prohibition, where period vehicles are driven haphazardly through the streets of Chicago. There is video of the game (here), but reasons for its cancellation are hard to come by. That the SystemX appears to contain never-before-seen image files and textures (one of which features a man's face which is eerily similar to John Travolta) is likely to interest fans of both the Atomiswave and unreleased games in general.
Alongside the Chicago 1929/The Roaring Twenties files, there are also files relating to a game which did see a commercial release - arcade light gun title Sport Shooting USA. That fact that the SystemX recognises the Dreamcast gun goes some way to confirming that this development kit was probably utilised in the creation of this game. Finally, there are some frankly bizarre images of a random guy's head and some underwear. Not sure that I want to know what was going on at Sammy HQ in order for these images to find their way onto a development kit!
So in summary we have an awesome discovery that contains some hitherto unseen images of games such as The Roaring Twenties (aka as Chicago 1929) and a bunch of bizarre images, along with early files from Sammy's released arcade light gun game Sports Shooting USA.
We look forward to seeing what else Brian can mine from this intriguing piece of historic hardware, and we'll be keeping an eye on what he discovers. You can also keep an eye on the finds by following Brain on Twitter here, and you can find his fine Neo-Geo website here.

Update:
Here's some video of the Dreamcast light gun working on the Atomiswave dev kit:



Thanks again to Brian for sharing these images and video with us, if you wish to reproduce them please give credit where possible. So what do you think? Let us know in the comments or join the discussion in our Facebook group or on Twitter.

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