Hi all, Newbie here, so apologies to the admins/mods if this post would be more appropriate elsewhere! I've recently been looking into the various Dreamcast magazines that were published during the console's heyday (for no other reason than curiosity). I've found that there are some excellent full-run scans of certain mags available online - such as those for the official UK and US editions. However, from what I can see, a huge number of magazines have not yet been preserved (I.E. been scanned, and made publicly available online). It seems a shame to me that this is the case, and I am interested in the possibility of taking some steps to resolve this. My initial searches (including SegaRetro as well as sites such as the Internet Archive, RetroMags.com and the Out-of-Print Archive) lead me to believe that scans of the following issues of European and North American DC mags are currently unavailable: DC Magazine (Spain) 4, 5, 6 DC Tips (UK) 1 DCM (USA) 1-4 Dreamcast Arena (Italy) 2-16 Dreamcast Galaxy (Italy) 1-10 Dreamcast Kult (Germany) 1-14 Dreamcast Losungen (Germany) 1-2 Dreamcast Magic (Germany) 1-9 Dreamcast Solutions (UK) 4 & 10 Dreamcast Trucchi e Soluzioni (Italy) 1-3 Dreamzone (France) 1-9, 11-20, 22-23, 26-28 Game Dream (France) 1-18 Before I set out on the task of scanning (or donating) some of the above magazines, I was hoping you folks could let me know if you happen to have an answer to either of the following questions: 1. Are you aware of any websites that are currently hosting scans of the specific magazine issues listed above? Please provide a link if so! 2. Are you aware of anyone who is actively undertaking a project to scan and upload any of the magazine issues above? If so, please could you share their name and contact details? Of course, any other relevant information or comments would be most welcome, but I am particularly keen to get some clarity on what is already available and what may be in the pipeline (to avoid duplication of labour). Cheers, Lozz
We mirror everything we find on Retro CDN (which is what Sega Retro links to) - if it's not up there, it probably doesn't exist online.
Ok thanks. Looks like my list above checks out against Retro CDN. I have quite a few copies of Dreamzone (FR) and Dreamcast Arena (IT), so will see what I can do. At a bare minimum I can definitely get some good quality cover scans up - my local library should have a flatbed scanner big enough for them. Somewhere along the line I will debind and scan them, or donate them to someone who has the tools and willingness to help with the scanning and editing. I saw your username on many of the DC mag entries - thanks for the work you've done so far!
OK, I've finally finished my first round of scans and uploaded 14 issues of 'Dreamzone' yesterday. Hopefully the edits I made to the page on Sega Retro aren't too messy. I'm still green to editing wikis so any help folks can offer in cleaning after me would be appreciated! I've penned an article on this magazine for the Dreamcast Junkyard which will be published today or tomorrow. Once I've scanned and uploaded the rest of Dreamzone I'll be moving on to other DC mags, including full or close to full runs of mags from Germany, Italy, the UK and the US that are yet to be digitally preserved.
Excellent stuff - the page numbers go out of sync in the first issue but I've added the reviews for the rest: Dreamzone/Ratings it's one of those "video games are awesome guys" magazines where very little software is awarded less than 75%. And it continues the trend where French-developed games get higher ratings from French magazines (un deux trois). But plenty of coverage for games that were never released, even if some were PC-only projects mislabeled as potential Dreamcast games. Again, probably because it's French, there's some interesting coverage of 4 Wheel Thunder, the pseudo-sequel to Hydro Thunder. Before it found a publisher, this game was called "Xleration", but now I've seen decent screenshots... this version didn't use off-road vehicles! The entire premise of the game was changed from sports cars to offroaders, and then made more Hydro Thunder-y. I was almost tempted to split the page - it's rare to see a project deviate so much from the original intentions in public. "Rare" as in, the other example that comes to mind is Conker's Bad Fur Day.
Thanks for your insights here Black Squirrel. Yeah, unfortunately I think there was a printing error with the page numbers on the first issue. The printed numbers would suggest that two pages are missing, however, I double checked the material, and the scanner didn't miss a leaf, neither did it look like anything had been torn out/removed (such as an insert). If I can get my hands on another copy of issue one, or speak to someone who has it, then we can try to verify what has occurred there. I also got the feeling that there was a bit of a home-country bias in the scoring - perhaps that's expected to some degree (no doubt there would have been a desire to maintain good ongoing relationships so as to retain access to information). My suspicion is that the early scores in particular were probably inflated too by the sheer excitement that would have surrounded the launch period. I'm planning to have a proper sort through the coverage of all the rumoured/unreleased titles at some point. No doubt many, if not most, never actually made it into development for the DC. However, there could be some which did that have been forgotten about and haven't received any attention in the contemporary DC scene. Your points about 4x4 thunder are interesting - funnily enough I think PC Wizard was talking about the same thing during a Worms World Party session the other week. Perhaps there is the kernel of a blog post there... Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the mags. I'll be sure to report back here as and when more are ready to be uploaded.
