Happy 19th Birthday Dreamcast!

[Lodmot]

 

Just wanted to say Happy 19th birthday to one of the greatest game systems ever made.

I actually just bought new batteries for my VMU without realizing what date it is. XD

 

Do you guys remember this date 19 years ago?

[Atari Pogostick]

I remember buying 4 Dreamcasts due to issues and all of them broke by either the drive failing or power issues.

 

Oddly the 5Th DC I got, the black sports one, works to this day, and that's with years of bootleg discs too. Since then I got 5 more white DCs between 2004-2009, all of those broke by 2014. My friend got two black ones and two white ones at the same time and one of his blacks ones is the only one of the 4 still workimg. Today.

 

Curious.

[derFunkenstein]

Sega's Last Stand. Love this system as much as any other. Between the Genesis and the Dreamcast, I'm not entirely sure which would be my all-time favorite.

 

I didn't get on the train until January of 2001, buying it with Christmas cash. Thankfully I bought it from Babbage's who had a great policy of matching price drops within a certain amount of time (I forget how long) and they refunded a big chunk of my money after the announcement. I had a full-time job and lived with my parents while I went to college, so I also went on a buying spree and bought around 35 games from that point until July when the local Shopko finished its liquidation sale. I'd buy a game or two every week out of my paycheck, never going over $50 total, but always having something new to play.

 

Metropolis Street Racer, Street Fighter III, Crazy Taxi, Quake 3 Arena, NFL 2K1, Unreal Tournament, Sonic Adventure, and so much more. Got them all for like $20-30 each during the aftermath of Sega getting out of the console business. At the time I was just ecstatic to get such good deals, but nowadays I pine for the days when Sega was more than an empty shell of a publisher for other studios' games.

 

Happy birthday to Sega's last great console. Here's to nineteen years of "It's thinking".

 

Edited September 9, 2018 by derFunkenstein

[+Cafeman]

I sure do remember that day. Bought it early in the morning at the mall , brought it home and played Sonic Adventure and NFL2k for several days straight. I have been playing DC lately, mostly Street Fighter III (so excellent!) and Crazy Taxi 2.

[Flojomojo]

Does any Dreamcast emulator attempt to replicate the noise of the GD-ROM drive, like FS-UAE does for Amiga?

[Blazing Lazers]

Thanks a ton for really making me feel old today!

 

But yeah, 9/9/1999 is one of those few days from back in the day that I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. I was at a friends house playing House of the Dead. He had it on Day 1. It was amazing.

[zylon]

I remember it, but I didn't buy one until the end when it was $50. I was still pissed about the Saturn then and didn't want to waste $ on a passing fancy. I did like the system though and had lots of fun with it, especially with games out there so cheap. It's not that often that a fairly recent system with that much of a quality library goes up for peanuts like that did. The stars might never align that way again.

 

I still have mine somewhere and it works.

[Lodmot]

Does any Dreamcast emulator attempt to replicate the noise of the GD-ROM drive, like FS-UAE does for Amiga?

 

Never knew there was an emulator that actually does that. That sounds really neat though! > u <

[Punisher5.0]

19 years......wow! I remember being a Junior in High School and talking to one of my friends about it on release day. He got one right away and we had a blast playing Rayman on it.

 

I recently had a resurgence with the DC this year thanks to solid state medium options. It let me appreciate the system so much more. What a fantastic library it has.

[TwinChargers]

I cannot say I remember the day exactly, but I remember around that time, seeing demos/kiosks for it at a local Media Play, Best Buy and I believe even at the Metrodome. The Dreamcast is the last system that really wowed me graphically. I was still in high school when it came out. My limited amount of money was being resourced more into CDs, girls, and at that time the Playstation. Had it come out when I was a touch older I would have went all in!

[dj_convoy]

Still thinking after all these years!

 

 

I remember when my buddy came in with a game magazine to show me that the Dreamcast was coming (I think it had only been rumored as the "Katana" or whatever up until then) like some time in 1998, and I felt really betrayed by SEGA, since they were cutting off the Saturn at the knees. I vowed to never buy a DC, and I didn't until probably 2004 or 2005.

Edited September 10, 2018 by dj_convoy

[TwinChargers]

I remember when my buddy came in with a game magazine to show me that the Dreamcast was coming (I think it had only been rumored as the "Katana" or whatever up until then) like some time in 1998, and I felt really betrayed by SEGA, since they were cutting off the Saturn at the knees. I vowed to never buy a DC, and I didn't until probably 2004 or 2005.

 

I wish I could remember a bit more from the mid 90's. I know I went from having an NES in my early teens, and after that going all in on the Genesis up until its death in the later 90's. It seems to me that going to the Playstation was a no brainer at the time. I completely passed up the Saturn, so I never felt burned. By the time the Dreamcast came out though, it seemed like it was either going to be its saving grace, or their last gasp. Alas, Sega exited at the very least on a high note (console-wise).

[Flojomojo]

I had an import Dreamcast so by the time the US launch came out, I was a little tired of the regular stream of gorgeous arcade ports. Still loved it, but the launch date doesn't do anything for me except for the cool 9.9.99.

[MrMaddog]

Actually I preordered a PS2 because I had a Playstation at the time. But the shipping shortages bumped my preorder down to a few months after it's debut so I was PO'ed about it.

 

Then I heard about the Dreamcast port of Gauntlet Legends that was better than the N64 version so I canceled my PS2 preorder and got a Sega Sports Dreamcast instead. Never regretted it... I loved the fact that I finally had a console that was just as good as my PC games between online playing and support for VGA monitors and keyboards through adapters.

 

It's a shame it had a short life, but there's a resurgance of a sort between HD remakes of Dreamcast games and the ReDream emulator that upscales games to 1080p.

[derFunkenstein]

It's a shame it had a short life, but there's a resurgance of a sort between HD remakes of Dreamcast games and the ReDream emulator that upscales games to 1080p.

To me ReDream is well worth the $5 just so I can play Dreamcast games at my iMac's native 5120x2880 (well, 3840x2880 4:3) resolution with no slowdown. It's a shame that WinCE games don't work, but Crazy Taxi at that resolution is off the chain. Too bad there are some tiling issues with the load screen, but in-game it's perfect. The wired Xbox 360 controller I play with is a perfect match for Dreamcast games, right down to the location of the D-pad and left analog stick.

 

It's been said that some Sega execs wanted to sell to Microsoft, and that the Xbox is an extension of the Dreamcast. The controllers were similar enough and the Xbox could use in-controller memory units like the Dreamcast, so I don't know how much there is to it but there are definitely similarities.

Edited September 10, 2018 by derFunkenstein

[Lodmot]

Yeah, I was unfortunately one of those that went for the PS2 instead of the Dreamcast. x.x

I was like 10 or so when the Dreamcast came out, and my older cousin who I looked up to said that the PS2 was going to be better than the Dreamcast, so that's what I ultimately went with.

As it turned out, the only games I really got for the PS2 were Sega franchises. Needless to say, the Dreamcast would've been a much better fit for me as a kid. Being that I was always a huge Sonic fan, Sonic Adventure would have blown my mind back then.

Edited September 10, 2018 by Lodmot

[amiman99]

I remember looking at the Dreamcast Kiosks with Tokyo Xtreme Racer. The game looked sharp and smooth compared to other games like GT1 and later GT2 on PS1.

The one thing that I didn't like about the game were the light reflections on the road coming from the car. It looked like white triangles floating in front of the car. My first impression was that it is a high resolution N64.

I remember my friends got it on 9/9/99 and talking about it at work, but I didn't get it. I was waiting for PS2 before making any decision. I was looking at the Tech Demos, and PS2 were more impressive, specially the Ridge Racer girl and the Final Fantasy dance scene. I was thinking Wow, this is real time?

[spacecadet]

I bought a Japanese system at launch, and I lined up for an American system at launch. I still have my original Japanese system, although my American one died and I had to replace it. The Japanese system's boxed up now (ever since people figured out the boot disc trick) but the US one's actually still hooked up.

 

I've rarely been as excited for the launch of a game system; maybe never, actually. It was the height of my console fandom and I was just totally caught up in the hype. And for once, it lived up to it IMO. It was everything I wanted in a game console, as someone who had grown up in the arcades but *also* had done the whole PS1 thing and gotten used to fancy 3D graphics and RPG's and whatnot. And I missed out on the Saturn, so I was itching to "catch up" with what Sega was up to, and I wasn't disappointed.

 

Obviously other people were, but I still love the system. It's one of my all-time favorites. It might be the system I'd take with me to a desert island, if you asked me that question.

 

I got a PS2 at launch as well (actually a Japanese and US one too) and I remember my first reaction to it was "what the hell is this piece of shit?" I had ambitions to work in the industry by that time, though, so I thought I had to have it.

 

The PS2 took a long time to grow on me. The Dreamcast had me from day one.

Edited September 11, 2018 by spacecadet

[Austin]

I've rarely been as excited for the launch of a game system; maybe never, actually. It was the height of my console fandom and I was just totally caught up in the hype. And for once, it lived up to it IMO. It was everything I wanted in a game console, as someone who had grown up in the arcades but *also* had done the whole PS1 thing and gotten used to fancy 3D graphics and RPG's and whatnot. And I missed out on the Saturn, so I was itching to "catch up" with what Sega was up to, and I wasn't disappointed.

This pretty much sums up my experience with the Dreamcast launch as well. For me personally, there hasn't been anything to strike so hard at the beginning (and actually deliver) since the Dreamcast.

[TigerSuperman]

I had some inside info on a few rumored events happening at Sega so I wasn't expecting it to last long, but I did end up buying it. It was a pretty good console at the time but a lot of its original games are not really playable today, especially the sports games for obvious reasons.

 

But back when it was still in stores games like NFL 2K had me hooked. Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 was a blast as well. But without big third-party support I'm not sure the Dreamcast was ever going to get far to be honest.

Edited October 3, 2018 by TigerSuperman

[00010000]

9/9/99: A day that will live in infamy. I remember reading gaming mags for as much coverage as I could on the system, even picking up a strategy guide for Sonic Adventure even tho eventually I actually didn't pick a system up (just the year prior my parents had gotten me BOTH a PS1 AND N64, so I doubt they were up for yet another system a year later).

 

By the time I would've been in the market to get another system in '02, Dreamcast was off the market and I was basically in PS2 land by then, partly thanks to watching cool gaming footage on G4 with X-Play (Morgan Webb ♥).

 

What's funny is I had a Genesis for years by then and was well aware of Dreamcast thanks to magazine coverage, tv shows and game magazines, but didn't know a lick about the Saturn in the meantime. It'd be somewhere around '05 before I really knew what the Saturn was, which is crazy.

 

Given how much I love the Genesis (arguably still my favorite 16-bit system; SNES is tied w/ it in that regard imo tho didn't get into that one till way later. Never played enough of PC-Engine to form a strong opinion on it) and have been enjoying Saturn the past few years, if I knew what'd eventually befall it I'd of very likely held off on N64 in '98 to get my parents to get a Dreamcast the next year instead. It likely would've felt more like a natural progression of PS1 I was enjoying then vs. N64 which honestly outside of a few games like Mario 64 and Mario Party, didn't capture my attention as much as I dreamed it would've at the time (that of course is before I found out about games like Mischief Makers and the such waaaaay later). However, I couldn't of comprehended how much of a leap Dreamcast would've been over the 32/64-bit systems, and didn't have a single idea about stuff like "console generations" at that time, either.

 

All that said, I really do need to pick a system up one of these days, and I'd hope by then some stuff like the Sakura Taisen 4, Segagaga! and Napple Tale have English translations; I'm more curious and interested in those than some of the more commonly known releases.

[0078265317]

My white dreamcast still works.

[Dreamcast Gamer]

Technically the Dreamcast will be 20 on November 27th because it was first released in Japan. I prefer to go by the first launch date for a console's birthday rather than the launch date in my own region.

 

I was born three weeks before the Dreamcast's discontinuation was announced. While I grew up with retro consoles such as the 2600, NES, Genesis, Playstation, and N64, the Dreamcast was one that I completely missed. I remember seeing Dreamcast peripherals at my local video game store on January 9th, 2009, but I was there buying a brand new GameCube so I didn't have much time to look around. I don't remember seeing much Dreamcast stuff again for several years. Every once in awhile I'd hear about the Dreamcast, but I knew almost nothing aside from it being Sega's last console and the platform the Sonic Adventure games were originally released for.

 

In early 2016, I was with some friends at another friend's house with all the latest consoles. I asked out of curiosity if they had anything older and to my surprise they pulled out not one, but two Dreamcasts! I had never seen one before, at least not that I can remember. After that weekend, I became obsessed with Sega. I had always been a huge Sega fan as a child (I bought the GameCube to play Sonic Heroes) and I already had a Genesis and a Game Gear so it was time for me to start collecting!

 

I went to my flea market that June and found both a Dreamcast and Master System for $75 each. I was torn between the two. I have an easier time trying out random 8-Bit and 16-Bit games than I do with anything from the fifth or sixth generation of gaming and I knew that I'd have no problem doing that with the SMS, but the Dreamcast would be a console I'd probably buy only a few games for and then neglect. Nevertheless, I went for the Dreamcast and became OBSESSED with it. I even created a YouTube channel, Dreamcast Gamer, that was intended to be dedicated to the console, but that didn't last long (though I kept the name) and I started making videos for every platform, even non-gaming videos like "HATSUNE MIKU VS WINDOWS XP" or "The Death of the CRT Television". I lost interest around Christmas time that year when I started focusing on other consoles, especially the 2600.

 

I still play my Dreamcast every now and then, but no matter how awesome it is, it never kept me hooked as long as other consoles have. Even my GameCube is rarely played anymore despite Sonic Heroes being my favorite game of all time because it got me into console gaming (before I played that, all I knew was Windows XP gaming). I do play my PS2 quite a bit, but that's because I have several Neo Geo compilations on there. I guess the 8-Bit and 16-Bit era has simply become my priority these days. I love the fifth, sixth, and Win9x/XP era of gaming too and recently I have been gaming on an HP Pavilion a1610n Media Center PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 that I upgraded so now I can max graphics settings in Doom 3, Quake 4, and well, run Crysis at medium settings XD. However, while I certainly love this computer, I can't see myself collecting XP games. I'll buy the odd one and enjoy an amazing 3D gaming experience with surround sound, but I'd still want my 8-Bit and 16-Bit games and consoles more. I guess that's why I lost interest in the Dreamcast. It's a great console, but it's just not my passion like the Master System.

 

Still, the Dreamcast is still special to me and I hope to start it up again soon and finally complete the Sonic Adventure story mode that I began over a year ago.

 

Happy Birthday North American Dreamcast!

Edited October 13, 2018 by Dreamcast Gamer

[82-T/A]

I remember buying 4 Dreamcasts due to issues and all of them broke by either the drive failing or power issues.

 

Oddly the 5Th DC I got, the black sports one, works to this day, and that's with years of bootleg discs too. Since then I got 5 more white DCs between 2004-2009, all of those broke by 2014. My friend got two black ones and two white ones at the same time and one of his blacks ones is the only one of the 4 still workimg. Today.

 

Curious.

 

 

 

Was that a big problem for them?

 

I bought a used white one off eBay many years ago... I dunno... maybe 10 years ago?

 

I don't play it all that often, but I have a bunch of games for it, and it plays really well. Never had any problems with it. I also have a Saturn which I love...