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.

Happy Birthday Dreamcast! (Europe)

As we all know, the Dreamcast launch was staged over three dates. 09/09/99 sticks in the memories of many gamers as the definitive launch for the console, rightly so since the Dreamcast sold the most amount of it’s 10 million run in North America. It’s almost easy to forget the November 27th 1998 Japanese date or even this very day back in 1999 where the Dreamcast rushed into the homes of those wanting the 6th generation of consoles in Europe.

This day often passes with little fanfare certainly mostly down to it’s less than iconic number placement but the Dreamcast as a product really is something that should be celebrated in all territories it launched in and I’m sure treading on the same ground of how Sega got a launch so right (or so wrong depending on where in the world you are) isn’t something you’ve come here to read. For example, I believe that the console should have launched in the West in 1998 and the 09/09/99 date perhaps would have been better for Japan since the Saturn was still doing well enough in that region.

Instead, I would like to share my own experience of the Dreamcast at the launch. I would have been 12 when the console launched in the UK, I had a Megadrive through my childhood and my Dad had bought us a PlayStation the year before, this really was because ‘chipped’ games were so easy to obtain at car-boot sales here and was almost throwaway entertainment for myself and my sister as kids. Believe it or not, as much as I liked the PlayStation since all my mates had them, I didn’t really click with it and ventured to the other 5th generation machines in an almost backwards move, I had the N64 first which I loved for the selection of Wrestling games and of course, Goldeneye and Mario 64 but the Sega Saturn which I got after the ’64 was for me the best experience I had out of the 5th generation, the games at this point were dirt cheap since production had ended over 12 months before by this point, I had Road Rash very early on as well as Sega Rally and Virtua Cop with the gun, I was impressed with how fun this machine was as well as how well built it felt too. I yearned for games like Sonic Jam, Sonic 3D and anything else I recognised as a franchise on the Megadrive but these games always seemed to command a premium over many other games in my local Gamestation and at the time, stores like this were the only place to buy Saturn games outside an expensive Dial Up Internet ideal for an eBay in it’s infancy.

I’d strongly set myself up as a Sega gamer from what I remember. I wanted to experience more of what the company had to offer, venturing to the Master System and Game Gear since hardware and software for those was very obtainable in the UK where they both had a decent amount of success. I was also buying up Saturn games, even stuff I hadn’t ever heard of purely to have a good amount of games, being a kid, this took a clever mix of saving money from birthdays and Christmas and trading in my PlayStation and N64 which held more currency than the Sega stuff. I would say that here was when I became a collector over being a gamer, sacrificing what I would truly play and instead buying something obscure that had a good shot of being worth more one day; it did pay off, but that’s a story for another time!

Anyway, from this brief history of my game buying trends, it was clear that I would buy whatever Sega would be pumping out next. With the company out of the market here for a year, it became very easy to forget them as a current day competitor. The PlayStation had dominated, the N64 was hanging on and doing ‘okayish’ but Sega threw the Saturn out without the Megadrive to fall back on or the Game Gear , both of which could have made 1998 or beyond in my opinion, but Sega had this reputation here, they killed off hardware quickly, far quicker than their competitors. This was perhaps the cycle of things that wasn’t going to help the Dreamcast’s initial chances.

To say I was a gaming expert as an early teen would be a lie, yes I was a huge nerd for various things, WWF, action figures, cult TV and many other socially inept things, so I didn’t really know that Sega had a new machine coming. No real advertising had taken place, what was there was really unclear and naturally, the Internet gaming sites of today were not around then and £3.50 for a gaming magazine was more than I could commit to. Toys ‘R’ Us was perhaps the biggest factor into my Dreamcast desire, I saw the grey and blue stand up pod sat at the end of isle of my local store and watched Sonic Adventure being played by some older teens, it looked incredible! Far superior to anything I had ever seen before and THE Sonic game that my heart desired owning a Saturn. I simply had to have one.

I begged my Mum to get me one for one of my birthdays to which she bought mine from Electronic Boutique who had a deal with a load of 3rd party games which I didn’t care too much about, but Sonic Adventure was one of them.

To understand the importance of Sonic Adventure does require a degree of looking back and indeed forward. The game launched in all regions for the console and was the first solely 3D game in the series, it was also the first Sonic game to be technically miles ahead of anything at the time, play Sonic Jam’s 3D world and then Mario 64, play Sonic R and then something Mario Kart 64 and the difference in quality and technical prowess and it is almost night and day, but the Dreamcast was different, Sonic Adventure blow everything out of the water in 1999, it ran fast, looked great and was tailor-made for the Dreamcast. My first play through of the game was mixed, however. I didn’t like the wandering around to try and find the next action stage, but I did enjoy the sheer amount of characters and levels contained when you did find the right path but the camera was a pain more often than not leading to cheap deaths. There was enough about this game to love though so all was forgiven, I guess when we fast forward to Sonic Adventure 2, which would also be built with the Dreamcast hardware in mind it would be ironic to say that perhaps this was the last time we got a truly good 3D Sonic game which also seems to go hand in hand with my interest in Sonic almost disappearing after this game. I do strongly believe that games tailor made around one system benefit the most and that can’t be truer for Sonic. Both SA and SA2 really sum up how strongly the console left the gate and how strongly the impression it left on all that stuck with it until the very end. A machine far ahead of the pack and yet lived a fraction of the time it should have.

I guess this is mostly a retrospective look more at Sonic than the Dreamcast but I strongly believe most people experienced this game before the slew of high quality games that relentlessly launched for well over a year, I have the full PAL set of games as well as plenty of USA and Japan exclusives so I am quite well versed on the console library but SA is one game I can’t get out of my head, it’s a flawed diamond, that’s for sure but I happily play it whenever I power the Dreamcast on and something that even in 2021 gets attention from my three year old son, who loves Sonic Adventure over Sonic Mania, the reason? Those bloody wandering around bits! Maybe Sega did get a product that truly appeals to anyone in some form or another. Who knows.

Happy birthday Dreamcast!

Metal Canary Heading to Dreamcast in 2022.

It hasn’t been terribly long since a slew of new Dreamcast software was announced, gone are the days where we would be waiting years for a new project to show up for our beloved retro console of choice, but the times have changed and more games make their way over to the console thankfully.

One such game is Metal Canary, an interesting looking vertical shooter which looks to play like Capcom’s best efforts for the Dreamcast back in 2000. The game is built from the ground up using the KallistiOS, supporting VMU saving, rumble pack and most likely VGA output too.

The game is being developed by Titan Game Studios and what looks to be a developer named Frost Byte.

Keep an eye on the Facebook page, Sega Ultimate for more details on this promising looking game which includes some off TV footage of the slick intro and introductory level.

A demo is set to be released later this year, we can’t wait to give this one a try!

In other news, it would appear that the recently released Dreamcast game, The Textorcist has shipped with a bug in the software. A number of players of the game have reported that both the limited edition and standard edition discs experience a lock up on the game’s third battle which requires the player to defuse bombs that the enemy character has deployed. Thankfully video footage has been sent to GameFairy to help rectify this situation but one has to wonder the logistical nightmare surrounding a potential fix should all the discs in fact be faulty. Let’s hope the situation can be worked around in a simple manner. Ironically, the video footage we used to initially review the game was previous to this point – had I not pressed the wrong button which caused me to restart, this glitch would have happened in the footage also.

Despite the bug, the game is actually very promising and with all this ironed out, we strongly recommend the game.

Another Week, Another Sega Rumour.

Remember a mere matter of weeks ago, when we reported on a suspected closed-door deal between Sega and Microsoft?  well, apparently there’s a new rumour doing the rounds, as is customary every year around E3 time, there is usually some chatter about Sega which often involves them re-entering the the hardware market.

This time around, the rumour has come from well-respect Japanese publication, Famitsu to which their tech journalist Zenji Nishikawa semi-teased that a huge announcement is to be made on June 4th, stating it to be a ‘huge scoop’, below is the translated text lifted from Nintendo Life (of all places!)

My column in next week’s issue of Famitsu is crazy. I got a huge scoop… It’s a world premiere article. And an exclusive. It may not be Nikkei or Weekly Bunshun, but if you want to know if it’s a scoop that big…it totally is! It’s a scoop from a game company that everyone loves. An insane scoop. Last year, Wired got the exclusive story on PlayStation 5, right? Other media didn’t. It’s that level of a scoop. I interviewed a certain company’s executive and technical staff, it’s really revolutionary… really, it’s a revolution.

It’ll be in Famitsu next Thursday. I already sent in my manuscript, so the proofs are being made now. It’s a scoop on a level that when the story comes out, other media will make a fuss to the company like, “Why didn’t you let us cover it?” Maybe people will say, “Who was the first to break that story?,” “It was Zenji Nishikawa, right?” It’s a scoop as major as the PlayStation 5 scoop. I just wanted to say that in advance.

I can’t say [anything more] here, but it’s OK for me to tease it (laughs). I was told that it’s OK to do so at various meetings. It’s being talked about in other places. Just not by the media. It’ll rile up the games industry.

So where does Sega fit in? Well, this is where the ‘pinch of salt added’ rumour comes in, apparently Zenji accidentally name-dropped Sega during this chat and went on to say it certainly isn’t ‘Dreamcast 2’.

It’s no secret that Sega have been celebrating their 60th year recently with various different throwbacks and chatter, so let’s list some things this could be and the probability of viability.

1. Sega return to the hardware market with a new, exciting home console / handheld   – this is pretty much a 1/10, Sega aren’t in the position to manufacture a new console themselves and more over, why would they? With all their IP on rival machines, it would make no sense to scale back and limit where you can buy their games, they aren’t the same company they were, Sega Corporation / Enterprises is long dead – do we even really need another box under the TV? It didn’t work in the 1990’s and it sure wouldn’t work in 2020.
2. Sega are team up with Google to release games / exclusive content on Stadia  –  This one I would rank as a solid 7/10, Sega are quite happy to create games for a magnitude of systems and should their business model continue, it’s clear that they will release at least a Sonic game for Stadia with Google perhaps paying to have some exclusive IP for their gaming platform to create a unique edge.
3. Sega are delving into their back catalogue for the upcoming consoles with exclusives for either Sony or Microsoft.   – I can well believe this one, certainly an 8/10 for probability, a return of Virtua Fighter for PS5? Panzer Dragoon Saga 2 for Xbox Series X? Sonic Adventure 3 with added content for either system? Yes, not the first time this has happened at all, and with Streets of Rage and Sakura Wars returning from the depths of Sega’s huge back catalogue, we could well see a more creative focus from Sega like post-2001 where the companies IP’s were sectioned out for the consoles of that time.
4. Sega are being sold to Nintendo.  – This is highly unlikely, maybe a 2/10 probability. Sega don’t really need to sell up, they are in a decent position currently, and Nintendo are in the best position they’ve been since the Wii days so it makes little sense to shake down the coffers to buy a company that already makes games for them anyway.
5. Microsoft are buying Sega.   To be honest, I quite fancy this one but the odds are 3/10 here, Microsoft have the cash to buy Sega, but why would Sega sell? Historically, Japanese companies aren’t sold to American ones, Sega aren’t on their uppers and again, they make games for Microsoft. As I stated before, the only reason for this to be a reality is if Microsoft needed a marketing partner in the Japanese market where Xbox as a brand is irrelevant.
6. Sony are buying Sega. – Nope, no chance here, 0/10. Sony simply don’t need to be buying up developers for them to make games for their consoles, the developers fall at Sony’s feet. With the PlayStation brand being as strong as it is, Sony are in the best position they can be moving into the next console phase.
7. Google are buying Sega.  – I can’t really see this, so I’m placing this at 1/10 chances with the reasons being similar as Microsoft’s. Google don’t actually have a ‘console’ as such anyway, it’s a platform, and Sega are platform agnostic, there would be no point.
8. Sega are releasing a micro console based on Saturn or Dreamcast.  – Yup! 8/10. I can get fully behind this one, the Megadrive mini was met with universal praise when it was released and I’m sure it sold in decent enough numbers to make it worth at least exploring further on-chip mini consoles. The Dreamcast would be the safest bet as it’s easier to emulate and Sega no doubt still have access to a fair whack of the original masters of the games, whereas the Saturn is harder to emulate correctly and some software has been lost over the years, the Saturn is also remembered more fondly in Japan whereas the Dreamcast perhaps enjoyed a better reputation in the rest of the world, but let us not forgot that the Nomad as well as other Sega peripherals are being redesigned by Retro-Bit as we speak, a micro console that uses the original accessories? Yes please..

 

Whatever the weather, we need to keep expectations in check, would we love to see another Sega console, even if it was an Ouya type affair? Yes of course, but this simple isn’t likely or even viable in this day and age, look at the Atari VCS to see what we mean. Hell, we’d love to see the original Dreamcast hardware go back into production – again, it isn’t going to happen, the discs aren’t created anymore, certain aspects of the hardware cannot be replicated on a small scale and surely demand would be limited unless marketed as a ‘first console’ for children, sound likely? Not really.

We will simply have to wait until June 4th to see what comes to pass, like every year previous to this one, I don’t think we are going to see an epic 4-way battle like 20+ years ago.

Satazius Coming to Dreamcast.

Hot on the heels of Armed 7 which released on the Dreamcast earlier in the year courtesy of Pixel Heart and JoshProd, the team are releasing another Astro Port developed game; Satazius. Playing very similar to Armed 7, you are destroying various enemies and debris in space with the main difference being you control a space craft rather than an advanced soldier this time around.

The game features the same type of weapon choice front end that is found in Armed 7 which is are upgradable, the game aims to be accessible with four difficulty levels to choose from, Graphically Satazius is pleasantly varied with some neat effects retained from it’s 2011 Steam bigger brother.

What’s great here is that this game is being given a second round on the Dreamcast, many perhaps won’t have heard of this game before this point and will maybe want to purchase it physically on the console, which is fast becoming the go-to place for modern shoot-em-ups, much like the Saturn was years before.

You can pick up Satazius before the end of the year via Pixel Heart’s website or Rush On Game with Play Asia no doubt stocking an NTSC designed product, we’ve had the chance to play this and another JoshProd future release (no, not Arcade Racing Legends..) and we were left impressed by both, we’ll have a video review coming once pre-orders open.

We Take A Look At Armed Seven DX (Video)

You may have seen us writing about the slew of new games coming to the Dreamcast this year, mostly thanks to JoshProd, there’s plenty to be getting on with and little time to be doing it – so, what we’ve done here is taken Armed Seven DX, which we’ve done some QA testing on and made an episode of our gaming show, Retro Gamers : Half Time based around what we have played so far, keeping in mind this is still technically a beta build of the game, we think you’re going to be mighty impressed when the game launches within the next 6-8 weeks.

Armed Seven DX is a mech shoot-em-up, you’re tasked with shooting anything that moves, fighting mid-level bosses and eventual end of level foes through seven levels where a final end of game boss awaits. Plenty of weaponry is at your disposal across three separate classes, should you feel the need for more challenge, there are 4 difficulty levels ranging from easy to insane, on any of these chosen settings, the bullets come thick and fast so you’ll need you wits about you and your reflexes on point. As you can see in the video, we really quite like it!

Dreamcast : Year One – Two Thirds Funded, Final Interviewee Revealed.

We are routing for Andrew Dickinson’s Kickstarter that currently has 2 weeks left of the campaign, it’s already had pledges totalling over £4k of the 6K target, with many backers snagging the book at £8, which is an absolute bargain, 7 flush backers have even pledged £99 to feature in the book’s retrospective section, but this isn’t just for die-hard gamers who want their memories shared, oh no – in actual fact, as shared via a few project updates, some famous guys from the Dreamcast’s prime feature in the book!

Bernie Stolar, the former president of Sega of America around the time of the Dreamcast’s availability features as one of the interviewed cool dudes, Caspar Field who was the editor of the cool-as-ice DC-UK magazine over here in the United Kingdom gets a section too which is awesome as DC-UK was a bloody awesome stylistic magazine which almost read like the gadget magazines around at the time, very ‘early 21st century’ excitement.

Perhaps the most exciting is Ed Lomas, the reviews and deputy editor of none other than the Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK), this publication ran from launch until around June 2001, so we are really hoping that Ed may have some insider info on the games they received to review and perhaps an insight into how those demo discs were decided by Sega with the communication of the publication, maybe we might get an insight into games that never released.

All in all, some real great picks for the interview section. Remember that the book still requires some funding, so head on over and drop a pledge since it’s so low risk, and share it about Dreamcast fans!

A Q&A With Andrew Dickinson

Sometimes here a Dreamcast Today, we like to pester folk in the scene with random questions and form it up as some sort of interview. To tie in with the upcoming Kickstarter of Dreamcast : Year One, Forbes has caught up with the man behind the book – Andrew Dickinson, take a look at the somewhat random (but relevant ) questions we throw his way.

DCT : Hi Andrew, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today and answer some questions, first of all, can you introduce yourself to our readers and what it is you’re working on briefly ?

Andrew  – My Twitter bio sums me up pretty well I think! I’m a cat-loving, vegetarian games enthusiast who lives in Brighton, UK. I’m also a slight Kickstarter addict, having backed and been a part of various campaigns over the years! I finally decided to take the plunge and put something out there of my own, which is ‘Dreamcast: Year One’, a book about the conception, launch and first year on the market of this classic console.

DCT- What sort of background have you got in creating this sort of product? We think we spotted that you’ve already working on other books like this? 

Andrew – In terms of writing background, I don’t have any formal qualifications or a career in writing, but as a teenager I wrote for a Dreamcast fan site (dreamcastsource.co.uk) and have written other articles and such throughout the years. This particular opportunity came up when I backed a Kickstarter project last year, ‘PlayStation Vita: Year One’ by Sandeep Rai. The Vita is another underrated console in my eyes, and reading its story brought back so many memories of my time with the Dreamcast while it was still on the market. I realised this format that Sandeep had created would be a perfect way to tell the story of the DC as well. I’m now working with Sandeep as my editor, and I’m even writing a retrospective for his follow-up book, ‘PlayStation Vita: Years Two & Three’, about Power Stone Collection.

DCT- What’s your history with the Dreamcast? Have you had one since launch or did you discover it late on, were first hand experiences the fuel to create the book?

Andrew – I’ve had a Dreamcast since I was 16 – it was my birthday present from my mum that year. I’d been a gamer since the NES, but seriously started to get into it with the dawn of the PlayStation. That’s when I discovered the Resident Evil franchise, and I fell in love instantly. So when we started to hear that the next chapter in the franchise was going to be exclusive to the newly released Dreamcast, I started to pay attention! So I got my Dreamcast in August 2000 with a copy of RECV, as well as  Crazy Taxi and Power Stone. From that moment on I basically just fell in love with the system, to the extent that I found like-minded teens on chat rooms so I could gush about how great the Dreamcast was. That’s where I met Faz Asif, who set up Dreamcast Source, and I was a part of that site from when it launched until things wound down in 2002. So in terms of the period of time Year One covers, my first hand experience is fairly limited as I got involved after launch, however my experience with the games of that time will come out in the retrospectives I’ll be writing, and I also have interviews with people who were there for the launch, including Caspar Field who is the former editor of British Dreamcast magazine DC-UK.

DCT- Would you have rather had Sega continue making the Dreamcast and it came to it’s natural end, much like the GameCube and Xbox etc, or would you keep things the same, where support continues freely without risk of repercussions?

Andrew – That’s a hard question! At the time I would have wanted the Dreamcast to continue because it was my dream console (pun very much intended). It was so far ahead of the curve with online gaming and innovations like the VMU, and Sega were still churning out amazing first party titles. In my eyes, the Dreamcast could have gone on for years longer. However, looking back now with hindsight, it was obviously the right decision for Sega to take. Had they continued to soldier on with the Dreamcast we may not have Sega at all today, and that would be a very sad thing for the gaming landscape. More importantly though, the Dreamcast itself may have become forgotten and not revered as it is right now.

DCT – A difficult one for you here but, what has been your favourite Dreamcast game and why? 

Andrew – I’m sat doing this interview in my office next to my stack of Dreamcast games. I look over and just reading the titles of some of them bring back amazing memories for me, so trying to find just one is difficult, not least because my favourite can change depending on what mood I’m in! The answer that I think most Dreamcast fans will give is Shenmue, and for me it’d be both 1 and 2 together, as I had never experienced a story told in that way before. It was truly a magical journey (through mundanity at times, sure) that I will never forget. However, to single out the Shenmue games is to drown out a whole cacophony of amazing games that were just as awe-inspiring in their own way. To list just a few, some of my other favourites would be Skies Of Arcadia, Rez, Power Stone, Jet Set Radio and Space Channel 5.

DCT – Some solid answers there! Rez is up there for us too, what about this – you are on a secluded in a bunker, by yourself for a year – what games machine would you take with you, and why? 

Andrew – These questions! Jeez! My brain is in overdrive trying to make that decision. I would certainly not get bored playing Dreamcast games for a whole year, because there are so many gems! Being realistic though, I’d probably take something modern. I bought a Switch recently and love it (I was one of the few people who bought and loved the Wii U, so I held off a while for the Switch), however I have a feeling I might run out of games I’d want to play in a year on that. The PlayStation 4 has some of my favourite contemporary game experiences in titles like ‘The Last Of Us’ and ‘Uncharted 4’, however to me it would make sense to take an Xbox One X. Not the most popular console of today, but the only one that allows you to play games from previous generations without having to buy them all over again! The Xbox 360 had some good Dreamcast ports that are playable on Xbox One too, so I’d have a year with a wide range of games spanning decades, plus a 4K blu ray player! What could be better than that?

DCT -Good call, Xbox does seem to have the all-in-one media approach done well, it’s such a tough call, can we expect to see more work from you in the future? A Dreamcast sequel book, maybe a Saturn one? 

Andrew – If ‘Dreamcast: Year One’ goes well, then I do have plans for more books to complete the story of the little white box! I end Year One on the 31st March 2000, a year before the Dreamcast is officially discontinued, so Year Two would look at the highs and crushing lows that occurred during that year. Year Three would therefore look at those last titles being officially released as things came to a close, but I’d then ideally like to write a final fourth book detailing everything that happened after that. The home brew scene, the resurgence in popularity, the cult status… There is a lot to say about all of that!

In terms of other projects, I’d certainly love to read a book about the Saturn, but I don’t think I have enough experience with that console to do it any justice. Personally I’d be more interested in looking into the Wii U, why it failed to set the world on fire while simultaneously generating some phenomenal games!

DCT – Ah the Wii U! Now that was a shame, but thankfully it led to Nintendo heading to the top again with the Switch, we would love to see a follow on book covering the later part of the consoles life too, so fingers crossed all goes well. How did you go about creating your product? Is it a hard process? 

Andrew – Luckily for me, I had a template to follow in ‘PlayStation Vita: Year One’! I love the format of that book, so the general layout will remain the same – story, interviews and retrospectives. However, I wanted to bring a little something extra to really make the book pop, and so I have commissioned a bunch of illustrations from artist Eric Pavik to fill the book. The designer of my book, Steve Novaković-Thone, had found an illustration that Eric had done of the Dreamcast and used it as a placeholder for the cover while he was going through the design process. I took one look at it and realised he’d hit on something great, and that it had to be our actual cover! So I got in touch with Eric, and we started putting together images for the book. He amended his original console image to show the blue swirl used in PAL territories (I’ll be taking a very British slant with the book), and created artwork for key retrospectives and our interviews. They feel like the missing piece that truly ties together the writing and the design to form a cohesive whole.

DCT – Where does your information come from? Extensive research? Personal knowledge? 

Andrew – For Year One it was a lot of research, backed up by what I already knew. As I say, I didn’t actually get a Dreamcast until August 2000, nearly a year after it had launched in the UK, so my own knowledge of that time was fairly limited. Being a lover of the console though, I have done a lot of reading over the years, so I supplemented that with further research, and I also got a lot of great information from people like Caspar. I can’t wait for people to read his interview in full, because there are some fantastic insights in there!

DCT – Some would say that you got the console bang at the right time, we got ours in June 2001! Lastly, how long did it take to compile all the information together, did you look back and think ‘I forgot I need to add….’ 

Andrew – The book is actually still a work in progress. I’ve been working on it for about 6 months now, and I have a lot planned out already (and 20% is completed writing wise), however I also work and study alongside this which means it takes a little longer to get everything done, as you can imagine!

Another reason I haven’t yet completed the book is because I wanted to know that there was the support out there for a book like this to be released. I didn’t want to write a whole book, pay for all the design work, illustrations and printing only to find that no-one was really that interested, you know? As I mentioned right at the start, I’m a big user of Kickstarter, and while it certainly has its flaws in some regards, when it comes to things like board games and the video game community, it has allowed some amazing creators to get their vision out there.

It helps people who have these great ideas to connect with their audience and produce things that ordinarily just wouldn’t get made. So I figured what better way to find out if there is enough interest than to use Kickstarter. I’m really looking forward to connecting more with other Dreamcast fans through my project, getting feedback and suggestions, having conversations. The simple fact is that without Kickstarter this book won’t exist. ’Dreamcast: Year One’ is meant to provide a written, unofficial history of a true cult classic aimed at old and new fans alike, so having the Dreamcast community come on this journey with me is something I’m really excited about!

 

 

Many thanks to Andrew for taking the time out to chat to us, make sure you keep an eye out on Kickstarter for Dreamcast : Year One and give the Facebook page a like here :

 

https://www.facebook.com/dreamcastyearone/

Retro Fighters Dreamcast Controller Takes To Kickstarter.

It’s been a while since the Dreamcast featured in some good ol’ fashioned Kickstarter action, truth be told – we thought many creators were shying away from the platform in recent times, we know as potential backers, we have since some projects we’re still waiting on, years after being funded.

However, should you get the urge to splash some cash down, there appears to be a new DC controller doing the rounds. The Retro Fighters controller aims to right (what it sees as..) the wrongs that the original Sega equipment was seen to have. Having already worked their magic with the Nintendo 64’s control pad, Retro Fighters are hoping to bring what they cite as next gen features to the Dreamcast’s method of play, this version has a revised 2 handled grip with larger directional pad along with a turbo button and added shoulder buttons which apparently is handy for the fighting games on the system.

From what we can see, the controller isn’t actually that exciting and echoes the Electronic Boutique days of 3rd party peripherals, one handy feature is the cable being located at the top rather than the bottom, although in reality this is hardly an issue on the official unit. VMU and Rumble packs are supported.

 

What is impressive is how the team spent 18 months developing their own bespoke hardware which obviously includes the connector for the accessories which of course, is unique to the console. Retro Fighters look to have the controller in the hands of players by September 2019 and have a working prototype already which for backers, is actually a relief. How well the controller will fare after it’s successful Kickstarter is completed is anyone’s guess, it’s hit 5 times over the funding goal already but no doubt that some are holding out to see what RetroBit will come up with in the near future.

Here’s the link to the Kickstarter should you fancy giving this funky controller a go :