Named after the month the world was supposed to end — and put on sale eight months before it arrived.
Japan spent the late 1990s inside a countdown. One verse — in the seventh month of 1999, a great king of terror will come from the sky — had settled over the decade, and here was a game named after that month, reaching shops eight months before the month itself. July takes place across a stitched-together stretch of Tokyo, Kanagawa and Chiba, and you move between two people: Makoto Takamura, a student who lost his sister to a bus bombing in England six years earlier, and Joshua, a Mexican man born without the ability to father children and raised as a laboratory subject. Terrorism, gene work, a young religion hardening at its edges, a drug company with something to hide.
Keisuke Kojima runs his own studio today. In 1998 he was a brand-new planner at Fortyfive, and this was the first game he ever worked on.
On November 27, 1998, four games stood on the shelf beside Japan's brand-new Dreamcast. Two of them were Sega's own. One was a penguin sports game. The fourth was July, and it was the only thing on that shelf you read instead of played. It came from a small studio called Fortyfive, and it never left the country.
Look at what Japan was actually buying that year and the shelf turns strange. The twenty best-selling games of 1998 were Pokémon, Resident Evil 2, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, Ocarina of Time — which had gone on sale six days before the Dreamcast did. Not one of those twenty was a Sega game. Not one of them was something you read.
Fortyfive had only carried that name for about a year. Until 1997 the same company was AIM, and under it had already shipped Record of Lodoss War, Faussété Amour, Doraemon 3 and a Lord Monarch port. Afterwards it built Tokyo Bus Guide with the cooperation of Tokyo's transport bureau, and that is the title the studio gets remembered by. July is not.
For Keisuke Kojima, who runs a studio of his own now, this was the first game he ever worked on — a brand-new planner in 1998, on a launch-day title for a console that had sold nothing yet.
The art is where my hand stopped. A hundred and fifty named characters, and every one of them stands on screen with a face: children and adults, beautiful faces and plain ones. Two people drew all of them — Tony Takezaki and Yasuomi Umetsu.
Set that beside Kamaitachi no Yoru, which Chunsoft had released four years and two days earlier and which taught Japan this whole way of telling a story. Its characters were translucent blue silhouettes, and the emptiness was the point — you were meant to fill them in yourself. July did the opposite. A hundred and fifty times.
Nobody was required to draw all hundred and fifty. Someone decided each of them deserved a face. That kind of decision is what keeps a thing worth handing to the next person, long after the shelf it stood on is gone.
About this game
On November 27, 1998, four games went on sale beside Japan’s brand-new Dreamcast. Two of them were Sega’s own. The third was a penguin sports game. The fourth was July, and it was the only thing on that shelf you read instead of played. It was made by a small independent studio called Fortyfive, cost 5,800 yen, and never left Japan.
Gallery
The Story Behind
Look at what Japan actually bought that year, and the shelf July stood on starts to look strange. The twenty best-selling games of 1998 included Pokémon, Resident Evil 2, Gran Turismo, Tekken 3, Dragon Quest Monsters, Metal Gear Solid, Ocarina of Time — which had gone on sale six days before the Dreamcast did. Not one of those twenty was a Sega game. Not one of those twenty was something you read.
So on the morning the Dreamcast went on sale in Japan, a studio nobody had heard of set a reading game on the shelf: in a year when reading games sold nothing, for a console that had sold nothing yet.
And it was not done cheaply. July has a hundred and fifty named characters, and every one of them stands on screen with a face — children and adults, beautiful faces and plain ones. Two people drew all of them: Tony Takezaki and Yasuomi Umetsu.
Four years and two days earlier, on November 25, 1994, Chunsoft had released Kamaitachi no Yoru, the sound novel that taught Japan this whole way of telling a story. Its characters were translucent blue silhouettes, and that was the point — you were meant to fill them in yourself. July did the opposite. A hundred and fifty times.
Tricks & Tales
Fortyfive had only been called Fortyfive for about a year. Until 1997 the same company was AIM, and under that name it had already shipped Record of Lodoss War, Faussété Amour, Doraemon 3, a Crayon Shin-chan game and a Lord Monarch port. Afterwards it made Tokyo Bus Guide, a city bus driving simulator built with the cooperation of Tokyo’s transport bureau — which is the thing the studio is remembered for, on the occasions it is remembered at all.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
The Dreamcast enforces a regional lockout by software, with discs manufactured for Japan (NTSC-J), North America (NTSC-U), and Europe (PAL) each restricted to their respective consoles. Most Japanese Dreamcast games output at 60 Hz over composite or S-Video, which works on NTSC televisions worldwide; VGA output bypasses the TV standard entirely and is supported by the majority of titles, making a VGA box or HDMI adapter a practical solution for overseas buyers. PAL-specific titles are the exception: a minority of PAL games do not support VGA or force 50 Hz, so checking compatibility lists before purchasing PAL software for use on a Japanese console is advisable.
Maintenance Tips
The GD-ROM drive is the Dreamcast's most common point of failure — the laser lens wears out faster than those in most contemporaneous CD players. If games freeze, fail to load, or the drive makes repeated seeking sounds, the lens is the first thing to check. Clean it gently with a cotton swab lightly dampened with 90%+ isopropyl alcohol; do not press hard or use high-speed cleaning discs, which can scratch the lens. Compressed air is useful for blowing dust out of the drive bay and the fan area. The console's internal clock is maintained by a rechargeable ML2032 coin cell — the correct replacement type is ML2032 (not CR2032, which is non-rechargeable and can be damaged by the console's charging circuit).
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese July copies regularly.
Will this Japanese Dreamcast game work on a North American or European Dreamcast?
No, not on unmodified hardware. The Dreamcast enforces regional lockout via the console BIOS — Japanese GD-ROMs will not run on Western consoles. Options include a boot disc (such as Utopia Boot Disc or DC-X) that bypasses region protection without hardware modification, a BIOS replacement, or a Japanese Dreamcast. The Dreamcast's regional protection is widely considered one of the easiest to bypass among disc-based consoles of its era.
Do I need a VMU (Visual Memory Unit) to save game progress?
Yes. The Dreamcast has no internal save storage. A VMU must be inserted into the controller's memory card slot to save game data. Each VMU holds 200 blocks; most games use 1–20 blocks per save file. The VMU also has a small LCD screen and can run mini-games independently of the console. Third-party memory cards are available, but the official Sega VMU is recommended for reliability.
How should I handle and care for a Dreamcast GD-ROM disc?
The Dreamcast uses GD-ROM, a proprietary high-density disc format. Handle by the edges and center hub, avoiding the data surface. Clean by wiping from the center outward in straight radial strokes with a soft lint-free cloth — never in a circular motion. If the console struggles to load an otherwise intact disc, the Dreamcast laser may need cleaning or adjustment, which is a common maintenance issue in aging Dreamcast hardware.
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy July
A short checklist for buying a used Dreamcast disc wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
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Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
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Check the disc for scratches
Deep scratches on the playing surface cause freezes and read errors. Light surface marks are usually fine.
Ask for a clear photo of the disc's underside. A seller who tested it will confirm it loads and plays through.
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Make sure it fits your console
This is a Japanese Dreamcast GD-ROM. The Dreamcast is region-locked, so a Japanese disc generally needs a Japanese console.
Play it on a matching Japanese console or a region-free system, and confirm the listing states the region.
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Saves use a VMU — no disc battery
Dreamcast games save to a VMU memory card; the disc itself has no battery.
Make sure you have a VMU with a working battery and free blocks.
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Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
See the unit we have →Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where July sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
Share your memory ↑From the Museum's Screening Room
July Dreamcast — Max Explains