Unconfirmed reports indicate that the popular Saturn title Nights may be getting the sequel treatment on the Dreamcast. It is hoped that the game will be officially unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show, Japan’s largest gaming event, which opens on March 19. Rumour suggests that Nights 2 will take the form of a free-roaming action-adventure, as opposed to the linear structure of the original game.

The recent AOU Amusement Expo in Japan was the perfect place to spot future Dreamcast games. Although this was primarily an arcade show, Sega went to great lengths to illustrate the synergy between the Dreamcast and the Naomi arcade machine. Hot games on display included Zombie Revenge, Crazy Taxi, Airline Pilots, Derby Owners Club, Flash Beats and Ferrari 355. Porting these titles to Dreamcast shouldn’t be a major problem, except for Airline Pilots and Ferrari 355 – the Naomi versions of which use three screens simultaneously.

A source at Infogrames has revealed that Alone in the Dark 4 is currently in development for PC and Dreamcast. Alone in the Dark was a groundbreaking PC title - one of the first games to feature cinematic camera angles and sumptuous 3D graphics – and spawned two inevitable sequels. Without this series, it is highly unlikely that we would have seen games such as Tomb Raider or Resident Evil. So can the daddy of them all come back and teach the nippers a thing or two?

Sega of Japan have confirmed that development is underway on a glut of Dreamcast peripherals. A hard drive, camera and microphone will all make an appearance at some point in the future, although there are no release dates as yet.

This week’s hot topics on the Future Gamer Chat Forum include ‘Tekken versus Street Fighter’ (‘Tekken rules, Street Fighter is for children’ – ‘Gogden’) and the inevitable PlayStation 2 rumours. Is Sim City 3000 simply a cut-down version of Sim City 2000 with better graphics? ‘Clam’ certainly thinks so - he feels that he has been ripped off. Have you bought Sim City 3000? What do you think of it? Head on over to the Chat Forum and bone your contentions.