Dreamcast

[Shauna]

Yes the console.

I never had one, but I have heard whisperings from across the internet that this console was before its time, and that it is considered by many to be a great console that was gone too soon. What are you opinions on this sort of thing?

The "failure" of this console following the release of the PS2 also caused Sega to retire from the hardware producing game, and instead focus on just creating games. I am sure all those great Sonic games that have been released are a sign that they are doing good on that front.

What were your favourite games? Ever use that online play that the console boasted?

[Ayen]

My brother had one and I watched him play games on it. I like how improved the graphics on WWF Attitude looked in comparison to the PS1 and N64 versions. I'm also a fan of Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi. Never got to play many games for it, sadly, and my brother eventually sold it.

[Rez09]

I've owned a few Dreamcasts, actually. The system has a lot of great fighting titles on it, Tech Romancer and The Last Blade II in particular standing out to me, and controllers were suuuuuper cheap once the PS2 hit and everyone abandoned the DC. It was great.

Unfortunately, the controller is also pretty terrible for fighting games, which was, maybe, not so great. T_T

It's also notable that the console didn't require modification to play burned games, something that really hurt it once people picked apart how to make selfbooting copies. This was, however, particularly nice if one wanted to play Japanese games that never were released here, like Street Fighter II X and that awesome Darkstalkers game. You lost out on the netplay, of course, but that wasn't such a big loss considering the dial-up modem packaged with the console.

[Night Fury]

Shenmueeeee!!!!!

[MJN SEIFER]

I was adamantly against them as when I was younger as I was squarely on PlayStation's side, but now I regret not buying one. From what I've seen they had some really cool games (Soul Calibur looks excelent, and there's a gap between Soul Blade and Soul Calibur II in my collection which needs filling). Anyone who says Dreamcasts are synonymous with failure don't know what they're talking about. Yes, it was the last console Sega did, but it didn't cause the failure - it was the last good thing they did before the failure happened.

[krissy]

i got a dreamcast in 2008 off ebay with shenmue and virtua tennis

it rocks

there's no security on it so i can play whatever i want as long as i download it.

jet set radio
power stone
crazy taxi
skies of arcadia
resident evil 3
marvel vs capcom 2
street fighter whatever
ikaruga
soul calibur got so much play

it plays snes emulated roms
and genesis emulated roms


to be honest it looks better than a lot of the new age games sometimes

[Old Manus]

Hipster nostalgia goggles

[Bolivar]

My brother had it, I think the only DC game I played on it was Phantasy Star Online, which was kinda cool for its time.

I used it mostly to play NES roms. We'd play RBI Baseball and such against eachother like it was the good ol' days . The furthest I ever got on the original FFI NES version was on the Dreamcast.

[Slothy]

What were your favourite games? Ever use that online play that the console boasted?

What weren't my favourites? Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, RE: Code Veronica, Ikaruga, Virtua Tennis, Grandia 2, Skies of Arcadia, House of the Dead 2, Typing of the Dead, Space Channel 5, Capcom vs SNK, Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighter 3, Jet Set Radio, and probably more I'm forgetting. I still have a hard time believing that a console could be around for two years and have a library that strong. There are some consoles that had lifetimes three times as long that don't have that many titles worth owning.

As for the online I never used it. It came out during that weird time when people were really transitioning from dial up to broadband which meant the dial up modem it came with was pretty much useless, and it wasn't around long enough to justify my buying the broadband upgrade. Shame really.

[Sephex]

It was a good console.

[Polnareff]

Great console, but everybody seems to think that piracy was what killed it. Nope. It was the hard and fast media blitz from Sony with their upcoming PS2 that did it. Hell, the sales took a nosedive BEFORE anyone knew that you could easily pirate games for it, and only picked back up in the face of the PS2's release when it was figured out that you could play burned games on it without modding (they later took this out with the last models of it).

But yeah, great console, troutty launch timing. About 6 months or so after the DC came out, all these gaming magazines and websites got all this info on the upcoming PS2, such as it being a game and DVD player in one, for a price of 300 bucks (DVD players were still 400 or more at the time), and it having better graphics than Dreamcast. The launch lineup for PS2 was the biggest one in history, which was another factor that steered people towards it. I have basically every magazine that came out during that time for the PS2. All the major ones had at least 2 issues each, before it even came out. Couple that with the PSX being the clear winner the previous console generation, and all the times that Sega flubbed their console launches, and it added up to there being no way that the Dreamcast could survive.

Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite systems because as many of you know, I am an arcade junkie (especially for Capcom and SNK games), so the DC was like heaven for me. All those good ports of arcade games, as well as a great lineup of RPGs like Grandia 2, Skies of Arcadia, El Dorado Gate, Timestalkers, etc. I never got to play online, but I do know that Microsoft helped them with the online for it. Kinda ironic considering what happened a year later with the Xbox.

But yeah, favorite games on the platform are Project Justice (Rival Schools 2), Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Grandia 2, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Cannon Spike, Gunbird 2, Skies of Arcadia, Guilty Gear X, Capcom vs. SNK 1 and 2, Plasma Sword, and Tech Romancer.

[Vyk]

It's also notable that the console didn't require modification to play burned games, something that really hurt it once people picked apart how to make selfbooting copies.

there's no security on it so i can play whatever i want as long as i download it.

WUT!?

How did I miss this? I had heard that was the case, but the one time I looked into it, it seemed rather complex. Then again, this was years before I got into real piracy and softmodding consoles and stuff. Never really hardmodded a console or anything, but this seems like something I should have come across at some point. But then again, it was the first console I looked into for doing anything like this. The first console I actually ended up modding was the PSP, after it died. Then went on to the Wii (after it died), and getting a flash cart here recently for the DS (after it has died). I think its fair that I re-investigate this situation

But then again, most of my piracy is simply to taste test games I can't rent anymore. The ones I enjoy I end up buying. So my piracy would never hurt a market

More on-topic, however: I did love my Dreamcast. But sadly was never able to acquire much of a collection for it, before it died. Much like my Saturn. Only more-so. I had quite a few gems for my Saturn, just not a really well established "collection". Probably like 10 or 15 games. While my Dreamcast, I only had like ... 4 games Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, Soul Calibur, and... Unreal Tournament something or other. I think that's about it. Though I rented things like Power Stone (which I loved), I never got around to buying much. I completely missed out on Grandia 2 and the original Skies of Arcadia :/ Either way, there was a TON of weird and interesting games for the system. And I always thought that was fantastic. I think it set the market for things that later became a dominant trait for the DS and stuff. I'm not sure why there wasn't boatloads of Atlus games on there since both were all about testing out weird ideas

[Polnareff]

The early Sega CDs had the same problem. You could burn a game and just play it with no modifications. Of course, back then, very few people knew about it because CD burners either didn't exist at the time or they were insanely expensive.