Return to Arcadia

I thought it was time to introduce my custom Dreamcast.

Ideally the shell would have been blue – and I did find a really nice darker blue-greenish one, however sadly it was sold out, so I went with my usual black instead.

Specs

• Black shell
• Custom controller port board with blue LED highlighted controller sockets & power light, fix for the controller issue when unplugging / inserting when the console is on
• Noctua fan upgrade (much quieter now)
• Custom blue Dreamcast logo sticker
• Dolphin SoA sticker that I had custom made

I also have a USB-powered power supply to put in at some point.

I decided not to go with the GDEMU because I like playing with the physical discs. I also decided against the HDMI mod for now because my soldering skills are non-existant and I didn’t want to mess it up. I have several cables to hook it up with for now, though.

I bought a 10″ JVC CRT monitor and connect the Dreamcast via S-Video which looks great.

本日はエターナルアルカディアの２４周年記念日です！おめでとう！

Today, 5th October 2024, is the 24th Anniversary of Eternal Arcadia!

So I’m sitting here drinking coffee out of my SoA mug & listening to the soundtrack whilst writing this post.

And what a good day to open the anniversary self-published fanbook & other SoA merch from Japan. Even though SoA has always been in my heart my favourite game of all time, I have only recently started my collection, but I’m already really happy with it despite knowing it’ll never be complete with some of the unobtainable & super-rare merch out there.

I remember buying my copy of Skies of Arcadia in a bookstore for £60 (back then that was extortionate; nowadays it’s the normal price for a AAA game). I loved it & completed the game after finally defeating Lord Bane in Soltis – whom I found harder than Ramirez by the way.

It’s odd to think it’s approaching 25 years old, but nice to see that there remains a small following and fanbase.

So happy birthday Eternal Arcadia.

Today I found out that there are 10 – not 9 – Eternal Arcadia telephone cards – or as they are known in Japan: テレカ (Tereka), which is an abbreviation of ‘Telephone Card’.

This elusive 10th card has a concept sketch of Vyse and Aika that also appeared in the ‘Goregous Visual Book’ that came with the Limited Edition Japanese Dreamcast version of the game.

I found this image via image search (I was actually searching to see if there were more cards) which originated from a long-expired Yahoo Auction entry.

When I did a reverse image search on it, all that came up was some sketches which also came from the ‘Goregous Visual book’, so I’m guessing it’s the rarest card.

In the bottom right it says ‘Telephone Card 50’, which is interesting.. I doubt there were as many as 50, however maybe it was in reference to something else like an anniversary year.

Sadly there wasn’t any information on the auction listing.

I wanted to create a site where I could share my discoveries about Skies of Arcadia – or Eternal Arcadia. SoA has been my favourite game since I was young, however I have only recently started collecting for it.

My Goals

My goal for myself is to play the game again (several times) and eventually 100% it.

I have also started collecting all things (well, nearly all things – not sure about those manga…) Skies of Arcadia and I am hoping to complete my collection one day.

Goals for the site

When I start my journey play through the game again I will be making notes such as the differences between the Dreamcast & Gamecube versions & will be adding them to the site. I don’t expect to become ‘the authority’ on SoA – this is more a fun task for myself more than anything.

At some point I would like to add a forum so all SoA fans can chat / discuss / share our collections etc.

For copyright reasons any screenshots / media etc. may have to be limited, however I’ll see what I can do.