Epic Win: Sega Dreamcast
Submitted by Eric S
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast, a console that bombed so badly that it was discontinued roughly a year and a half after its release. But there were a handful of great games, and it was the first system to include internet (it was a 56k dial-up modem, but hey, that’s forward thinking!).
And I know what you’re thinking: ten years is hardly a nostalgic win. But consider this post a tribute to Sega’s legacy. The Dreamcast was the company’s last foray into consoles, before it shrunk and became a publisher/developer exclusively. Basically, remember how much you loved your Sega Genesis?
best sega game ever.
JGR deserves an epic win of it’s own.
I still have my Dreamcast. First game I got for it was Sonic Adventure, then Power Stone. <3 GOod times, goooood times.
best system ever, aside form the NES/SNES
I didn’t like the Dreamcast, largely because there weren’t any decent games for it, but I played Sakura Taisen on it. If nothing else, it had a good rendering engine and the images were beautiful.
This is pure win. I don’t care what anyone says.
Nice going on the 9/9/99 as well.
I brother bought one of those recently, the games really are fun!
Advanced before it’s time. Rest in peace old friend.
WHAT?! Handfull of games!?! Dreamcast had sooooo many games include some released even this year!
Actually only 1 released this year and june.. But the list is quite decent!
If they had included DVD playback, the console would have done way better. That’s why the PS2 did so well, Games + DVD = Win.
Actually this was the replacement for the Saturn and was meant to rival the Playstation. The Saturn had CD playback with a (really crappy) visualizer. It, too, bombed only months after release.
WTF are you talking about, Saturn kicked Playstations’ ass head to head. It would of survived if Sega had the marketing $$$ behind it like Sony.
Except that when the PS2 came out, it was the cheapest DVD player available in Japan. Tons were bought by people who had no intention of ever playing a game on it. They just wanted to watch DVD’s.
Still the greatest and most innovative system ever made.
I remember I saved up my allowance and mowed lawns and bought mine the day it came out when I was in sixth grade.
Still lovin’ it.
We kept ours for HydroThunder!
I still have one hooked up. Even today I find the games fun, the console itself was just based on being as fun as possble. Sure the graphics were great at the time, but Look at crazy taxi, Hydro Thunder, and sonic adventure 1 & 2 all just simple fun. The dreamcast stiil has a homebrew scene and was an arcade players dream. I’m off to play my Marvel vs capcom 2, then some typing of the dead.
Anyone remember Skies of Arcadia? That was my favorite. YARRR!
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing is just another epic addition.
I also like Sonic Shuffle(Hey, I like those kind of games).
I use to have the Dreamcast when it first came out. It was awesome. I played it everyday. I remember getting online to download codes and save files onto those cool little memory cards with the LCD screen. My opinion is the only reason the Dreamcast failed was because it didn’t play DVDs like the Playstation.
Its not the Dreamcast that bombed, the 32x and CD devastated Sony financially beforehand, the release of the PS2 was just the final nail in the coffin.
Tech Romancer, amazing game if you get the chance to play it.
I was just about to say the exact same thing. Dreamcast was a great system but the timing couldnt had been worse for its release. It definitely would have provided some worth competition for the PS1 if released in the mid-90s.
If only Segata Sanshiro were around to save the Dreamcast.
Damn….. so true, hahahah
せがた三四郎は、君たちの心に
Sega more or less ran out of cash to go against Nintendo, and Sony. They wanted a quick victory, and it didn’t happen.
Hell Shenmue was such an expensive game every Dreamcast owner would have to buy two copies in order for Sega to turn a profit.
Shenmue, and Shenmue 2 were awesome games for their time IMO. engrossing storyline, and free-roaming. a really good, and quite believeable RPG i thought.
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
– I was really hoping that Ryo Hazuki would catch Lan Di though. that guy really needed an ass kicking. be great if they re-mixed, and made a Shenmue 3 for the 360, or PS3
We still have a dreamcast at home, too. Too bad it didn’t catch on well. It came with the option of choosing between console OS-es.
Unfortunately the European commercial campain blew ALL their money on getting a British soccer-team to wear the Dreamcast logo on their shirts… and then they were out of cash. Nobody knew what that swirly was for. :`
I remember the next christmas all the Games in a huge bin for 99p, awww what a shame, there were a few great games, so did the Megadrive. But Playstation one had more decent games but the Playstation 2 games just never had the same shine
Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down and I’d like to take a minute, just lay down prone and I’ll tell you how I became the King of the Frozen Throne
In west Lordaeron born and raised on the battlefield where I spent most of my days cleaving, hacking, slaying all cool and all destroying evil with my mana pool
when a couple of demons said “we’re up to no good” started making trouble with the kingdom as it stood I got in one little body possession and my people got scared and said “you’re moving with the liches and the zombies in their lair”
They hated and feared me as I went away But I vowed to come back another day They were then wishin’ that they weren’t dissin’ I created my army and said I might as well kill’em
First class, yo this is bad destroying Lordaeron and the humans en masse Is this what bein’ the King of the Scourge is like? Hmm, this might be alright!
I whistled for my army and when they came near they were mindless but our goal was clear if anything I could say that this goal was rare but I thought now lets go without a care
I arrived in the north where Illidan met his fate And I yelled to the elves “Yo holmes, you’re too late” Looked at my kingdom I was finally home to settle with the Scourge on my Frozen Throne
not bad, not bad at all to be fair
although there’s a time and a place. you FAILed on both counts
It wasn’t the first console to include internet.
Was first in which it was a standard part of whole set. In other you had to buy very expensive add-ons.
i’m all about playing power stone on my dreamcast. and jet grind radio, of course.
i’m going to have to say that my favorite dreamcast game is space channel 5. soooo gooooddd.
I still have my dreamcast, the only complaint I have about it is that the guns broke way too easily (either that or I played House of the Dead 2 way too much)
This really did have some great games. Soul Calibur II, Shenmue I and II, Phantasy Star Online, JGR.
Oh and did I mention the epic win all in itself, Sega Swirl? Heck yes. I wish I hadn’t sold mine…so stupid.
The only reason I had a Dreamcast was for PSO…Phantasy Star Online, b*tches!
I then later got Soul Calibur, I loved how the mini Ivy character would whip her sword chain around on the memory card…
Dreamcast was and still is epic win – still there are games developer creating games for it, they even started another SDC production line few years ago. They made broad band modem and so on but SEGA made a huge mistake – instead of upcoming DVD medium they chose to develop GD-ROM (which should get an epic win – 1 GB CD ? great!) and that was FAIL. Great titles worked, but sequels quick reached Sony and Playstation 2. Fail begin with letting production line still running when balance reached 0. Income vs outcome, step by step, led this great platform to reach very bottom of console next gen war, and basically, console market. Even thought – still got playable Dreamcast with some games on my SEGA shelf near MasterSystem and Genesis
Discontinued after 18 months? Uh… That doesn’t sound right. I seem to remember Sega discontinuing sales just a few years ago. 2006? I know they stopped marketing and such pretty quick, but they still approved games for a while after that. Puyo Pop Fever, a Sega title, was released in 2004.
Also, if I remember right, it still holds the record for most consoles sold on a US release weekend at a cool half Million.
I just remember babysitting this kid with ADHD and he could never wait for the games to load. I used to show up early to load a game to play with him so he could sit still and try not to kill me
“Basically, remember how much you loved your Sega Genesis?”
Yep. But that has nothing to do with the Dreamcast… Put the Genesis on the site if you think the Genesis is win (and it is).
Agreed!! the Sega Mega Drive, or Genesis, or whatever you call it across the pond is far more of an epic WIN than the DC.
My ex-husband and I whiled away many an hour playing Crazy Taxi. Until one of his crackhead friends broke the lid. :/
It’s nostalgic for me!
This and the PS1 made up a huuuuge part of my life (and still do), playing games like Sonic Adventure, Power Stone 2, Soul Calibur, Spyro the Dragon…good times. ^_^
Here’s my eulogy.
I started as a Sega fanatic when I got Phantasy Star for the old Master System back in junior high school. I stopped playing video games as a hobby when the Dreamcast went away… that was after I finally got a good-paying job after college. Before then, I never had much money… and to finally be on the top of the video game heap was a great feeling. Thanks, Sega… you helped de-stress me after school and after those long hours working. Playing video games is much cheaper and better for you than hookers and booze.
Sorry to post again so quick, but I had a lot of fun downloading the games after you couldn’t buy them anyways. For a quick casual game, I would try “Chu Chu Rocket” or “Mr. Driller”. For a screamingly fun air combat game I would try “Propeller Arena”. It’s a flight simulator about as realistic as Crazy Taxi is a driving simulator. That is… way too much fun to notice how impossible it is.
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure 2
Soul Calibur
Resident Evil Games
To name just a few
The Dreamcast owned
I’ll second “propeller arena”, the best game never released for the american dc
the late nineties sure had a lot of good games. now it seems like they’re all just a new skin on a game engine
CRAZY TAXI!!!!
Samba de Amigo!
Although now the Wii has a version of it.
My hubs & I still have our Dreamcast… although until about 2 wks ago it had languished in a CD cabinet for eons. (OK, so it was only about 2yrs.) Anyway, we’ve rediscoverd it & the fact that e-Bay has a plethora of Sega DC titles to choose from. Matter of fact, we just dropped about $60 for 5 games, some VMUs & rumble packs, a few extra controllers & a couple of guns. Got ourselves a little homemade arcade rolling now.
I still own one of these, and I still use it even. I play Sonic, Soul Calibur, and even Seaman on it still. I love the older stuff. They are just too great to pass up.
My fiancee and I are huge gamers, and by a happy coincedence, the anniversary of our first date (which will also be our wedding anniversary) is Sept 9th. Also, the Super NES came out on Sept 9 so we’ve spent past anniversaries playing hours of Dreamcast and SNES. Dreamcast is one of my fiancee’s all-time favorite consoles.
Anyone who’s feeling ultra-nostalgic and has a hundred bucks (plus shipping) to spend can get themselves a genuine Dreamcast from ThinkGeek:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/ba52/
Personally, I have no experience with the Dreamcast or any other system of that era. I was a broke-ass college dropout working my butt off just to make the rent and such for most of the 90s and the early part of this decade. I bought an SNES with the cashed-in vacation pay from one job that I quit (the version with the Mario All-Stars pack-in), and that was the last new system that I bought until I got a PS2 with a tax return three years ago.
Oh gosh, I remember playing the Sega Dreamcast when I was little, it was actually my first gaming system. I played a lot of the Sonic games on that. It was probably the best thing since sliced bread to me when I was little.
always disliked the sega kids… sega was boring compared to nintendo.
you can still but brand new sealed-in-the-box Dreamcasts from some online Vendors. I just picked one up about a year ago just in case my current one gives up the ghost one of these days
for the record the sega genesis has a small modem like device and the saturn also offereed online dial up game play
Ahh, I love our original Saga Genisis. We used to play Sonic for hours, good times… It still works to.
Its always been about the games and not the consoles for me. Im easy to please so almost every console where I got a great collection of games is an automatic win.
The jaguar was a sure fire fail though.
i miss my dreamcast.. i bought it and a bunch of copied games from my friend… and then it got stolen.. estaba muy triste
I still have a sega genesis. Its a pain to dig out from under the tv, but set-up is much easier given the 1 plug instead of the 3 RCA plugs. Strangely, my new flat screen LCD has the jack that Sega needs to plug into the tv. The problem is, to get to the plug, I have to pull the TV out, which strains the very short HDMI (fail on my part for not getting a longer one) close to breaking, so I need to unplug the cable and then fumble blindly for the HDMI port to plug it back in. But its worth it. I have games like F-22 Interceptor, NHL ‘96, Super Street Fighter II, Mickey’s Castle of Illusion, Aladdin, The Lion King, and a whole bunch more. I have a wii, and i can download *some* Sega games, but none that I want or have. And nothing beats having a 16-player Battle Royale on SSF2 using the classic jet-black, 6-button controller.