Driving Strikers PAL Case Variant Incoming.

It may come as no shock to you that Wave Game Studios, the guys who’ve been publishing Dreamcast games solidly for the past couple of years recently added Driving Strikers to their release slate for 2023. The game has now out and about in the wild with jewel case NTSC / NTSC-J and European style artwork and runs you around £25 directly from their website.

What you may however be pleased to find out, the PAL ‘blue case’ version which has long been rumoured and fitting in line with previous Wave releases is also on its way in Q3 2023. This edition along with a newly added limited edition jewel case variant will come with a slip sleeve, music CD and digital download costing around £40 (the PAL blue case version is £50). In addition to this, should you have a PAL box laying about, there’s an option to just purchase the PAL ‘upgrade kit’ for a very reasonable £1.99.

Another take away from all this blue case excitement is the possibility of reprints of past releases which Wave have offered in this packaging before like Shadow Gangs, Postal and Intrepid Izzy giving fans another chance to grab these rather illusive and special editions of the games, should the demand allow for it. You can add yourself to the waiting list for Shadow Gangs currently on the order page over at http://www.wavegamestudios.com .

One would hope that Yeah Yeah Beebiss II and Xenocider will be considered for this treatment too, or at the very least, PAL upgrade kits!

Andro Dunos 1 & 2 Shipping Now.

If you cast your mind back to 2021, you may remember that Pixelheart and JoshProd announced that Andro Dunos and Andro Dunos II would be releasing for the Dreamcast on an undisclosed date in 2022. With that year coming and going, it would be easy to forget these two games missing their initial projected releases but earlier this year, JoshProd gave confirmation that the games would be shipping this year with a concrete March 2023 date.

Fast forward the time it takes for these games to reach from France to their final locations and here they are! So what do we have here?

Well, Andro Dunos is a port of the 1992 Neo Geo game by Visco, it’s your usual space shooting fare with a basic levelling system and choices of weapons. Whilst Andro Dunos II is a wholly new adventure which has been developed by Picorinne Soft and released on the Nintendo Switch, 3DS and PlayStation 4 in 2022 with the Dreamcast version suffering slight delays. Although it looks fairly basic on the face of things, Andro Dunos II actually has some neat little touches to the presentation which in a prolonged play session become more and more apparent as the levels progress. You’ll find cool effects when warping into light speed and enemies who’ll appear in background before making their presence known in the foreground to dish you some damage. Some enemies will skid into the frame and others will have noticeable battle damage when you start gaining the upper hand.

The graphical presentation is something which is actually a highlight of Andro Dunos II and the atmospheric soundtrack matches the action all the way along. I was very impressed with my play though, initially sticking the game on it’s easy setting to be able to see as much of the game as possible whilst learning the enemy patterns works well with a progressive difficulty curve. The Dreamcast port of course has concessions, it isn’t able to display the high definition output of the other versions and the initial load time when booting up is rather excessive but once in the game, the levels load in quickly so can be forgiven.

All in all, if you’re in any way interested in new games for your Dreamcast and Shumps tickle your pickle, there’s a lot to like here. Both Andro Dunos and Andro Dunos II are available now at http://www.pixelheart.eu

I made a video back in 2022 when I got my hands on the incomplete build of the game which is linked here

Also I’ve taken the time to have a look at the packaging design and what you get in the case which if you’re interested, you can catch here :

News Catchup – March 2023

I’m going to admit to you right now; I’ve been really slack in keeping up with the latest happenings on the Dreamcast and that has made me somewhat selective with what’s been exciting me of late, being a Dad now means I have less and less time to enjoy playing games, let alone write about what we can enjoy in the months to come. However, enough about me, let’s talk about things that you may have missed ….

Worms Pinball!

First up is the pinball entry in the enduring Worms franchise. This game was long rumoured to have been completed for the Dreamcast but unreleased due to the financial involvement of bringing it to the market for a console that had been discontinued (never stopped the N64 getting game long after if curled up though… But hey!), turns out these rumours were true and the Dreamcast build was released to the public in February of this year thanks to Comby Laurent (Sega Dreamcast Info) who made it all possible. Check out their website where you can find a whole host of information on various prototypes .

Next up is a new game!

HarleQuest is a cool looking dungeon crawler that has you taking control of a Jester as he tries the escape from the King’s exile. You’ll be dispatching foes and avoiding traps in this promising 3D adventure which hits Kickstarter on April 1st (no, really…). In all honesty, this game looks to be the most promising use of the Dreamcast’s graphical capabilities since Xenocider, so I personally can’t wait to give this one a try. Wave Game Studios are on publishing duties so hopefully there’s a reasonably priced PAL blue box variant available eh! The project’s creator, Ross Kilgariff attributes games like Record of Lodoss War, Medievil and Gauntlet Legends as inspirations for HarleQuest’s design. Check out the Kickstarter campaign here :

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ross-codes/harlequest-a-new-3d-dungeon-crawler-for-the-sega-dreamcast?ref=31s8gw

Next up, is some familiar news if you managed to bag on of the Wave Game Studios demo discs for the Dreamcast last year. Turns out that a second one is on the way this year which features a playable sample of HarleQuest as well as the mysterious Summoning Signals which was announced by Retro Surge almost three years ago now. There is also another playable demo featured on the disc which Wave are keeping under wraps currently, so we’ll have to wait and see what exciting game forms up the trio in due course. Head over to Wave Game Studios’ website to get your free disc before they run out :

https://www.wavegamestudios.com/shop/debug-indie-sampler-2

Next is also a new Dreamcast game!

Big2Small by RetroRoom Games is a cute looking game that is heading to the Nintendo 64, Gameboy and Dreamcast and tasks you with guiding animals to their food choices avoiding obstacles and utilising the unique abilities of each animal to aide you on your adventure. Big2Small looks to be quite an interesting game that doesn’t tax the hardware much but I can imagine will tax your brain as the levels get more complex. It’s always nice to see new puzzle games on the Dreamcast. If this is up your street, check out the order page below.

Thanks to @DreamcastPics on Twitter for the heads up on this one!

BIG2SMALL

Andro Dunos !

Remember back in 2021 when Pixelheart opened pre-orders for Andro Dunos and Andro Dunos II ? No? Well it would be easy to forget that these two games were coming to the Dreamcast and as sure as time flies, the release date is now upon us. Unleashed on March 25th after a slight delay, both of the games should now be shipping to customers around the world. Both Pixelheart and JoshProd have been somewhat quiet on the Dreamcast front in recent times so hopefully they’re gearing up to release something new on the Dreamcast in the future. One thing that seems quite sad is that Pixelheart look to have abandoned all of the Dreamcast branding from their PAL packaging looking at the spine renders on their website. This would be especially sad as their box designs for the earlier games were spot on next to commercial releases of the time but now look to stick out when spine on with other retail DC games. Shame really.

https://www.pixelheart.eu/en/shop/?pa_plate-forme=dreamcast-pal

Last up for this round is Falco Girgis! You may remember Falco from the days of Elysian Shadows, we ourselves had some choice thoughts about Falco back then but time has let go of that and Falco has been busy back at work behind the scenes in the Dreamcast community working on an array of cool stuff which he is no doubt aiming at assisting Dreamcast developers in years to come, it’s actually quite refreshing to see Falco with a renewed focus and active again in the Dreamcast scene. Follow his progress here :

Tweets by falco_girgis

Woody Woodpecker Racing Made Playable

Yes that’s right! Long rumoured to be a near completed product that was cancelled shortly after Sega sent out those infamous yellow advertising pamphlets in software from 2001, Woody Woodpecker Racing was advertised to be releasing that year, April in fact. Sadly this never happened and the game, like many of the other games on those pamphlets disappeared without a trace.

A few short years ago, rumours began to circulate that the game was indeed ‘out there’ in the hands of a collector, now as it stands in 2023, the game has been compiled to a playable level and appears to mostly be there with choices of game modes and playable characters along with the ability to save to the VMU.

It’s incredible that in today’s world, we’re seeing such a dedication to preservation. Heading over to Twitter, you can catch the latest happenings with this game by searching out @Borman18 (Andrew Borman) who recovered the files and @frioglobal1 (Jollyroger At Times) for assisting in getting it playable to which they’ve taken the time to detail the process in getting the game running.

For the 2-3 foks out there who care about this kind of stuff, here is a thread describing the process I went through to assist @Borman18 in getting Woody Woodpecker Racing working on Dreamcast. It's been many years since I last worked "officially" with these tools…

— Jollyroger At Times (@frioglobal1) March 26, 2023

What’s your view on Woody Woodpecker Racing? Is it something you were planning to buy back in 2001? Or do you feel it’s something you’d play today? What’s quite interesting is that this game appears to be a straight conversion of the PC and PlayStation version, much like the rest of Konami’s output on the console but Sega’s promotional material have the game down as ‘Woody Woodpecker Extreme Racing’ perhaps there was meant to be some extra goodies in the DC version of the game or perhaps Sega got the name of the game incorrectly printed.

Metal Canary Shown Off In New Footage.

Hello! First off, sorry for the delay; we’ve had a fairly huge computer crash so that set things back plus life has got in the way, but here we are.

Some months ago, you may remember that we talked about an upcoming shump by Titan Game Studios which would be releasing on the Dreamcast some time this year. As it stands, there now is a few gameplay previews of the work in progress build, as you would expect there’s plenty of hectic bullets flying around the screen and tonnes of action already. Hopefully when the game is nearing release, Titan can find a publisher for the game in Europe, retaining that stunning cover artwork. 

The Dreamcast certainly has it’s share of shooters, most of which have released in the years after it’s commercial death in 2001. At one point, every independent release seemed to be shooter, but that has stagnated in recent years with Pixelheart mostly handling that genre and even then, there hasn’t been a game released this year so far that covers this category, Andro Dunos 1 & 2 still pending at time of writing. It’s good then to see another team from another side of the world stepping in to provide DC fans with another game for their library. 

 

If you’re on Twitter, feel free to check out the Metal Canary updates over there where new gameplay and features are shown off fairly regularly. 

https://twitter.com/metal_canary

News Catch Up May/June 2022

Phew ! It’s been a busy few months for the Dreamcast! With plenty of new release buzz and also developments happening in the background so let’s get started with some particularly exciting stuff, there’s also been translation projects and new VMU mods going on too!

First of all is the existence of an early screen of Cuphead – this much loved retro cartoon inspired side scrolling game which has the player shooting from his finger at the various beautifully animated enemies whilst memorising the attack patterns. The graphics were gorgeous for the modern consoles but nobody could foresee the game running on the Dreamcast’s hardware, but that is exactly what has happened – albeit in only a limited nature thus far. You’re able to download the progress of this to play on a real DC console, it’ll be interesting to see if this will continue into a full-blown release with the blessing of the original developers or whether just a proof of concept type scenario, anyway, you can keep a tab on the progress of this promising project over at Dreamcast-talk.com. Thanks to ‘Aionmagan’ and all involved in bringing this to the console.

grab a download from Github : https://github.com/Aionmagan/Cuphead_Dreamcast

Next up is the release date for Shadow Gangs! Can you believe that we are nearing the release for this wonderful side scroller action game? Well, in recent days Wave Game Studios have Tweeted saying the game will be released on July 2nd 2022. We are very excited to give this one a try. If you are buying from the USA, VGNYsoft has got you sorted 🙂 Order your copy here :

https://www.vgnysoft.com/product-page/shadow-gangs-dreamcast

https://www.wavegamestudios.com/shop/shadow-gangs

Speaking of VGNYSoft, they appear to be stocking all of the major Wave Game Studios releases for the Dreamcast so far, with slightly different artwork, these games will set you back $39.99, consisting of Postal, Shadow Gangs, Xenocider and Intrepid Izzy as well as some of the more recent Josh Prod games and a spattering of unique stuff like a limited edition release of RetroGuru’s Hermes which originally released in Europe a few years back and was available at Dragonboxshop. This edition however, comes with a custom green VMU and updated box art, this one is bound to sell out quickly so grab it here where you can also find 240p Suite Tester, a recently released calibration tool which is handy for setting up you Dreamcast to suit your display and capture settings. Pre-order these great games from the link :

https://www.vgnysoft.com/sega-dreamcast

Next up is The Textorcist. Okay, okay. This isn’t technically ‘new’ but if you ordered the game originally when it launched, you were no doubt aware of the game breaking bugs that plagued the game. Gamefairy were working to get a revised disc out which irradiated these problems which has now been released. I haven’t gone back into the game to check to see if the issues have been resolved, but at the very least, looking around the Internet, I have seen some positivity. If you haven’t claimed your replacement disc yet, head over to GameFairy’s website to claim yours. Conversely, if you haven’t purchased the game yet, it’s still available and will have the updated disc.

The Textorcist Dreamcast Limited to 666

Here’s another Wave Game Studios one for you. We’ve been given a hint as to what we can expect moving forward from these guys. As you may know, Wave teased a further spattering of releases for the Dreamcast this year. We already know that Postal has launched as of June 2nd and Shadow Gangs follows on July 2nd but next up is a tournament game for four players, perhaps a re-issue of Alice Dreams Tournament perhaps? Following that will be” a game where you must navigate increasingly more difficult obstacles with near flawless precision”. This could be anything really, but strangely SQRXZ sticks in my mind, but that game is already freeware unless it’s packaged with it’s sequels perhaps but let’s keep in mind that it’s probably something very different! Lastly is “a game where you must match gems to progress to the next level”, there’s been a few games like this that were meant to grace the Dreamcast over the years and a few that had actually been released so it’ll be interesting to see what comes our way, we do know that at least one of these games hasn’t been on the Dreamcast before and was/is a PC title. It would be nice to see Twist It finally make an appearance though!

This last one is particularly huge in my eyes. Regarding the Polymega. The company behind the modular retro gaming console which already allows for Saturn and Megadrive commercial game playback on it’s device have recently stated that they are actively working on getting Dreamcast compatibility! This would be very good news for the independent scene for the console, as we know, each year, more and more Dreamcast consoles die off or have their GD Rom drive replaced for an ODE unit which leads to shrinking sales of physical discs which of course would impact decisions to develop for the console, with the Polymega able to replicate the experience of playing the Dreamcast and it’s discs (even if it’s just the CD-Rom based content) we could see the door continue to be open for both gamers and developers to craft new experiences without the fear of a rapid shrinking market. Of course, GD discs are quite unique and this is most likely to cause Playmaji a headache but something is better than nothing, with all releases for the console in recent years being on CD discs, perhaps a happy medium could be reached here. Currently the team are looking at ways of trying to use the original Dreamcast unit in some way however, it would be awesome to see something totally new.

That’s all for now!

Shadow Gangs Coming June 2022.

First up Shadow Gangs. The successful Kickstarter for this side scrolling adventure game has recently had a shot in the arm in terms of it’s release date with Wave Game Studios now handling the publishing of the game, including the Kickstarter physical reward tier, the PAL blue box variant being included in this, it turns out that we can now expect the game to ship in June of this year, so rather than waiting until the original estimate of 2023, we’ll have the game in our hands this summer!

In other news, Wave Game Studios have announced that there will be an option to purchase PAL style blue box artwork for their games. Starting with Flea, you’ll be able to purchase a front and rear cover in the exact dimensions of the original Euro boxes, so all you need to do is use an existing box and pop your CD and manual in and there we go! One PAL game added to the mix. Wave Game Studios recently stated the sadly they cannot use the original Dreamcast top banner found on later Dreamcast software as there are potential legal issues surround the usage. Wave have said that Flea is the first and not the last time we will see this practice, so hopefully their other published games will follow suit shortly. More news will follow on this in the coming week, in the meantime, head over to their website to indulge in some Sega goodness!

https://www.wavegamestudios.com/shop

Dreamcast Demo Disc To Be Offered With Sega Powered Magazine.

It’s been a pretty active time for the Dreamcast in these last 12 months with plenty of games getting released and projects getting announced, it would stand to reason that the more that is happening, the more awareness is being spread.

With this in mind, Sega Powered Magazine which is set to have issue 5 released in June of this year has decided to team up with Wave Game Studios to offer up a demo disc to be given with the magazine. Some of you maybe too young to remember the days before small sections of game to test being available on a cover disc with your favourite magazine, this method gave way to console online marketplaces started mostly by the Xbox 360, where you could assess a demo without leaving your sofa.

There’s a certain charm to demo discs though, we remember all the official magazines in the day having a cover disc, including our very own Dreamcast. Here in the UK, the last of which would have been the July/August 2001 issue of Official Dreamcast Magazine (ODM) which would also be the last issue of that magazine too. It’s a great idea then, that after all these years, Sega Powered will feature a cover disc as there hasn’t been a better year of varied support for the Dreamcast since 2001 and we can’t wait to see what will make the disc, no doubt these will be Wave Games Studio’s current line up of games so expect Intrepid Izzy, Yeah Yeah Beebiss and Flea, but perhaps a surprise too, Postal also releases around the time that the magazine will release so maybe this game will feature too.

You can order Sega Powered Magazine Issue 5 from here when it launches in June : https://www.segapowered.com/shop

Head on over to Twitter to follow the conversation :

https://twitter.com/segapowered_mag

Close Up Look At Intrepid Izzy – PAL Limited Edition Plus Wave Game Studios News!

Here’s a turn up for the books that you may have missed. Intrepid Izzy, the Senile Team produced platform game released in 2021 has just recently been treated to an ultra limited release by Wave Game Studios. 25 copies of the game were released for around £49 sporting the full PAL blue case retail treatment, featuring all the markers you’d expect from software releases ‘back in the day’ the quality and love that has gone into making this is absolutely incredible, we’ve put together a video showing the ins and outs of the package, but you’re probably wondering why we’re talking about this in the past tense when, in actual fact, these sold out quite some time ago…. Well, it would seem that Wave Game Studios are continuing to explore the PAL style market, 100 copies of their June release of Postal will ship in PAL blue cases, if you’re quick and someone backs out of buying one, you may just be able to snag one of the last stragglers directly on their website . However, there are still the American, Japanese and slim Euro case designs available of this title as well as a few flavours of Izzy too!

Moving forward though, Wave Game Studios are looking into perhaps offering PAL artwork in the correct dimensions for the original cases which gives the option to the buyer of evicting a common game from it’s case and housing one of their releases instead. We think this is a great idea and having the choice can only be good for the market in general.

On a similar note, Wave Game Studios also Tweeted in recent days about having 12 projects being prepared for release within the next 12 months or so, it sure is a great time to be a Dreamcast owner, isn’t it!

Postal Coming to Dreamcast in June.

You may remember a few months ago when there was initial chatter about the classic PC title ‘Postal’ getting ported over to the Dreamcast, progress was good and the game was seemingly a decent fit for the console, with plenty of work going on in the background it now looks like the game has near enough wrapped up the process of being fully playable on the system and is readying a June 2nd release date which was revealed today by Wave Game Studios.

This is absolutely fantastic news, with the original developers asking back in 2016 if anyone would undertake the port and the code being open source, Dan Redfield took up the challenge of pinning it all together. Things really began to take pace when an Alpha build was shown in 2021 with a Beta later that year, but this year being as busy as it is for Dreamcast stuff, fate would land it nearer than we could have ever thought. Considering Dan’s home commitments with having a small child ( we know what that is like!) it’s all the more impressive that we’re at this junction point, ready for release. The game aims to keep as much content as possible with even mods a possibility down the line, aiming for 60FPS as well as VMU support.

For those that don’t know what Postal is, it was a violent 1990’s PC title that tasked the player with pretty much massacring a whole village from a isometric perspective, we kind of feel that subject matter aside, games like this are a great match for the Dreamcast that should have had more exclusive games ported from the PC to carve it’s own niche.

Wave Game Studios will be handling a physical release in PAL land, these chaps have also been re-releasing plenty of other Dreamcast software in recent months too which includes the recently added Xenocider too! Check out the pre-order page now and show your support to all those involved, we’re in for good things Dreamcast fans!

What’s your views? Is this the sort of game you’ve been waiting to get for your Dreamcast? Will you be purchasing it? One thing is for sure, with Wave Game Studio’s new found tradition of offering a Japanese / USA and PAL style of artwork in addition to a full-blown 100 copy limited PAL blue case variant, there’s going to be something for everyone – we personally love that Wave have stuck with using the blue Dreamcast banner which is correct for all software after 2000, it’s a small thing but JoshProd removed it for no real reason and their packaging just doesn’t look the same without it.