I had an entire binder of pirated Dreamcast games back when this came out. I can’t remember if I actually owned a genuine copy of a game (it was too easy to run pirated game discs).
I have good memories of the console though.
“Dreamcast” is probably the single best gaming console name of all time, too.
Retro Sega systems stand out with their cool, mystical/sci-fi sounding names: Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast.
They were unique and felt like they were telling customers that we’d be in awe when using their consoles.
(Master System and Sega CD were pretty boring though)
Most other big systems’ names seem so utilitarian and uninspired:
-
GameCube and Xbox are little boxy devices on your shelf that play games.
-
The Nintendo Switch can switch between handheld and docked.
-
All the PlayStations are stations that you play games on.
Yawn
Mega drive would have sounded cool when it came out, though it’s perhaps the most dated sounding name of the bunch.
-
Wii U too. Two consoles with a whole extra screen on your controller. Brilliant and cool features. Misunderstood or poorly timed?
Misunderstood for sure, I think. The Wii U suffered from what was probably the worst marketing campaign of any game console, ever. I didn’t even know it was a new console and not yet-another-Wii-addon until halfway through it’s life cycle and I think that was a pretty common misunderstanding.
And no compelling games library. What do you buy a Wii U to play? Bayonetta 2?
The way I felt about the Wii U was probably similar to how adults felt about the Dreamcast back then.
It seemed really cool, but it didn’t feel worth the money while there were other great consoles already. I was still getting a ton of use out of my original Wii.
And all because the PS2 could play DVDs and the Dreamcast couldn’t. Fucking DVDs. As ridiculous as that sounds today, people went apeshit over DVD playback capabilities back in the early 2000s.
But to be fair I also think Sega was their own worst enemy. In the 90s alone they released the Sega CD, 32X, the Saturn and the Dreamcast. Not to mention the Genesis 3 and CDX as well. If they would have slowed their roll and stopped cannibalizing their own sales, they might have done alright. The addon idea could have worked out better if done right. Hindsight is 20/20, so if they had a crystal ball they should have done something like this, and they’d still be making consoles today:
- Delay the Sega/Mega CD to allow themselves more time to rewrite the graphics ASIC to include 3D rendering capabilities.
- Cancel the 32X and Saturn; they were never even announced. The Sega CD is the next gen console.
- Sell it as an addon for $199, and cut the price of the base Genesis to $50. Release in 1994, along with bundle deals for $249 with an included game (for people who don’t already own a Genesis), and proceed wipe the floor with Sony before they even get a chance to compete.
Sega was their own worst enemy
Arguably they still are today. Can’t stop being a fan though!
I personally don’t think that would have worked. We’ve seen repeatedly from multiple companies that selling anything as an “addon” just results in failure because developers can’t assume that people will have it. You have to bake the function in the lowest SKU or it ends up a novelty.
Perhaps if they rolled out the canceled Neptune as the half-step between Mega Drive and a delayed Saturn. It would have been the an excellent base SKU developers could target, with cheaper CD media as a bonus… but I just don’t see an enhanced Sega CD/32X going up against the PS1 and coming out any better than the Saturn did. I guess they wouldn’t have hemorrhaged all that money on wasted hardware though.
I bought 2, my German Shepherd peed on the first one and killed it… RIP
Maybe he was more of a Sony dog.
Definitely a Nintendog
Nicely done.
This motherfucker right here had ONLINE PLAY. You could spin up Phantasy Star Online: Episode 1 & 2 and actually have other people join your game, drop duplicated items, and destroy your droprate. It was fucken sicc.
Pso2 was my high school jam. There’s still running private servers on pc but it ain’t the same when your homies are no longer around to play it.
Also PS Vita. It was better than anyone (even Sony) realized. And the few who DID like it obsessed with the memory cards and the actual insanely amazing console it is was forgotten and overlooked.
I still play mine today. And yes there are tons of great games on it beyond Persona, even though you wouldn’t know it among the usual Vita fans.
I never gave the vita a chance but I miss my modded psp
I had buttons get stuck on mine that I tried to fix but couldn’t.
That damn thing had some of the most fun games ever.
deleted by creator
Do you know where the sailors are? I’m looking for some sailors.
at some point “retro” consoles got popular on GameStops website and I invested in a Dreamcast, 3 controllers, and memory cards. it was all under around $80. so god damn worth it since I can just “find” games online for it. I didn’t grow up with it but it’s definitely been a fun console
You know, I haven’t thought about burning CDs for my Dreamcast before. Is it pretty simple these days?
It was easy like 15 years ago, now you just get a expansion card to hook up a usb thumb drive and have the entire catalog on it.
AliExpress has a part that replaces the disc reader. Let’s you play games on the console from SD card.
For others without a console, redream works pretty well for most games, even on a fairly old PC.
Lots of people feel the same about the TurboGrafx-16.
TurboGrapfx was cool because you could play on the console AND they had a game oh-like portable that could also play the games. It was BADASS!
My Friend: Did you hear? Sega cancelled the Dreamcast.
Me: …
Me: … (still waiting for the punchline)
Recently tried to get mine working (it’s been stowed away for a while) but it’s not reading discs at all anymore or even booting to the menu screen.
We used to have to do the turn it on it’s side trick but I think it was just stuck in a dark dank basement for too long. Kinda want to rip it apart and try to fix but we shall see.
Why do most youtubers act like the only target audience is teens? It’s cringe.
Why in the hell did Sega not put up any sort of anti pirating safeguards on this thing? Even my buddy who was always talking about how dreamcast was the best system, had a stack of all the Dreamcast games copied, because the Dreamcast would read and play copied games.
It was killed by its own fan base and lack of anti pirating
Bernie Stolar was also to blame because he was the reason a majority of the Dreamcast library was not localized outside of Japan
Oh but it did, first the GD-ROM that had 1GB and the only way to get the games into a CD was to cut the assets making it a worse experience and… playing recorded CD-ROMs on a Dreamcast was a very efficient way to destroy its drive.
dont cum in your dreamcast
Well there goes my plan to make new baby Dreamcasts
Too soon…
What makes me happy though is the Dreamcast is still going strong today with fan translations, indie games (and more) and online play.
