Happy birthday Sega Dreamcast.

NGCDFreak · Nov 27, 2015

I think today is the Japanese Dreamcast birthday I guess we can talk about the Shmups and 2d fighters it had. I only have a jpn DC and games for it and I'm happy owning that instead of my 360 which I got rid of. I would like to read about your experience with this console and the good times you had with it. Thanks

Mac91 · Nov 27, 2015

I've had a Dreamcast for about 4/5 years and still don't have any games. That needs to change.

ShootTheCore · Nov 27, 2015

Happy Birthday Dreamcast! I picked up a US model on launch day and it was so amazing at the time-Soul Caliber made even high-end PC games at the time look old.

My favorite Dreamcast shmups include Mars Matrix, Ikaruga, Border Down, Cannon Spike and Armada. It's a pity that we haven't seen more shmups like Armada-the RPG elements of an open universe to explore, quests and leveling really make it unique.

Like the Neo-Geo, quality indie development is keeping the Dreamcast breathing today. Here's to another 17 years!

cat · Nov 27, 2015

Great console i couldn't wait till the official uk release and bought a jap import, still got it (and it works great) and my favourite game on the system is house of the dead 2.
Criminal that the console was dead within 2 years or so and a sad day indeed for a sega fan like me, still a headscratcher that it failed.
The only faults were the horrendously loud GD-rom drive and the pants controller

NeoSneth · Nov 27, 2015

was the best of times, and worst of times.

fantastic games......so much pirating.
I originally owned about 10 games, and I had burns of about 150.

Yodd · Nov 27, 2015

lol Dreamcast

madman · Nov 27, 2015

I picked one up my last semester of college in '99 just for Hydro Thunder, I had the early release with the jacked up sound. Didn't end up playing it much and returned it. Picked one up after graduation and then really got into the system. Spent countless hours on Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi and Chu Chu Rocket. I still need to pick up the famed Virtua Tennis, though I may just pick up the Naomi version. Great system with a pretty quality library, it's a shame it never really caught on.

skate323k137 · Nov 27, 2015

madman said:
Great system with a pretty quality library, it's a shame that Sega didn't use DVD media and better copy protection so that it could have properly competed with the playstation 2.

Fixed that for you :lolz:

I think the Dreamcast was the first and last console launch I was ever really excited for. Between the VGA box, built in modem, etc. it really was a superior system to the PS2, but the PSX had done so well in America, and DVD players were still so expensive, that PS2 had the upper hand from the get. Once the copy protection was broken so early in the life of the system, that was really the death blow.

So many good fighters and shmups, and I can still sit down and enjoy a game of crazy taxi from time to time. The number of hours my buddies and I logged on power stone 1 and 2 was massive. Same with DoA2, MvC2, and numerous other games.

madman · Nov 27, 2015

I'm not sure how much the copy protection thing hurt the system, I got a PSX around launch time and soon enough HK bootlegs were readily available and bootable using the swap trick. It didn't seem to kill that system, but you do have a point to some degree especially around the DVD format. Sega's reputation also wasn't the greatest at that time in the wake of the Saturn, at least here in the US.

BodyHammeR · Nov 27, 2015

Copy protections are meant to be broken... Re: C64, MSX, Amiga, SNES, PSX and so on and so on... (:

But yay Dreamcast. Going to have my NTSC-J and PAL ones fixed up with new battery setups soon...

skate323k137 · Nov 27, 2015

The issue was it was just plain so easy to burn them so early in the life of the system. Between utopia and self-boot you didn't even need a chip or the swap trick. It most certainly helped drive nails in the coffin.

And yeah, sega's rep after 32x, sega cd, and saturn was hurting pretty bad.

cat · Nov 27, 2015

If i remember right sega did a lot of hinting that a dvd add on would be released but unfortunately the system went tits up so quickly it never happened. The eye candy it delivered with some of its games still stands up pretty good today, i loved the quirky stuff on it as well like seaman, bass fishing with the rod and samba de amigo with the marakas, and virtua tennis was the business when it was released.
Dreamcast also gave me the opportunity to play online for the first time, quake III arena was a blast back then, spent many an hour playing that and getting my arse kicked.

BodyHammeR · Nov 27, 2015

Well... I was fortunate to get into the Dreamcast early/late enough for games to be very affordable... most of the burned discs I have are demoscene/homebrew/emulation related...

Dreamcast was well ahead of it's time with the whole online thing, too far ahead in hindsight...

Mokkori · Nov 27, 2015

Happy birthday to one of best 2D fighting platform out there

Ip Man · Nov 27, 2015

Mokkori said:
Happy birthday to one of best 2D fighting platform out there

king of fighters 98,99,00,01,02.mark of the wolves,last blade 2 and capcom vs snk.

the dreamcast and the saturn was one of the main reasons i didn't buy a neo system until the mid 2000, because they satisfied all my neo needs.

RAZO · Nov 28, 2015

I missed out on the DC when It came out. I ended up going from the PS1 to the Ps2. Later on down the road when DC's were dirt cheap and amazon was selling them for $50 New was when I gave it a shot. Probably the best $50 I ever spent on anything video game related. The DC has such a great arcade library.

Dr Shroom · Nov 28, 2015

PS2 was better.

supersega · Nov 28, 2015

Dreamcast, yo! I have one on a nifty little stand I helped make.

RAZO · Nov 28, 2015

Dr Shroom said:
PS2 was better.

Of course it is but it's not fair to even compare the two consoles.

Setherial · Nov 28, 2015

I have a Dreamcast, loved when it got out, but couldn't afford it. Now I can and I enjoy it still.

aoiddr · Nov 28, 2015

I remember buying a Sea Dreamcast just so I could play Space Channel 5. Issue 4 of The Official Dreamcast Magazine totally sold me on that game that I just had to have the system. Samba de Amigo was the game that set my world on fire, though, and made me love quirky Japanese rhythm games that need special controllers to play.

SNKNostalgia · Nov 28, 2015

One of my friends got the system JP import December 1998 with Power Stone, Sonic Adventure, Marvel vs Capcom and Dynamite Cop 2. It blew me away at the time when I only owned a Pentium 2 8MB ATI card Win'98 PC with Aliens vs Predator 1 and Quake 2. Then another friend got the US launch model with Soul Caliber, Evolution, and a few others.

I finally bought mine on April 2000 with RE Code Veronica, DOA 2.... then SF Alpha 3, SF3 Double Impact, Marvel vs Capcom 2, SF3 Third Strike, Jet Grind Radio, Capcom vs SNK, and Shenmue. I bought some other games later on, but those were the games that had me busy. I would have bought a lot more, but this was when I was buying Neo Geo home carts mostly... then the PS2 came out and I spent a lot of money on games for it.

WoodyXP · Nov 28, 2015

NGCDFreak said:
I would like to read about your experience with this console and the good times you had with it. Thanks

I picked up mine on Thanksgiving day in '98. The Shenmue demo that was playing in the store blew my mind and made me decide that I needed one THAT DAY. I picked up the system with Sonic Adventure, Dynamite Deka, Virtual Fighter 3 Tb and Marvel vs Capcom. It was the most satisfying Console purchase I've ever made.

A few months after the American launch I put a four wire chip into it, replaced the case with a clear one and started knocking out the American library. I started my American Dreamcast Journey buy picking up Fighting Force 2. One of the shittiest games I played on the system, but I made better choices later. The 2K Sports games were sick! It was awesome to playing sports games that weren't made by EA or 989 Sports.

What a great system, happy birthday!

BladeDancer314 · Nov 29, 2015

I bought a Japanese dreamcast from NCS when it was released, still have it.

I never liked the controller tho, specially coming from the great Sega Saturn 6 button pad.

tacoguy · Nov 30, 2015

I remember going to Hollywood Video to play Sonic Adventure before the system was released. I probably played that demo a million times over but it was pretty awesome. I loved the 3d fighting games like Soul Caliber 2, Dead or Alive 2 and the Powerstone series. The system also had excellent sports game with their 2k series, great multiplayer games, and even some good 3d platformers. I can remember looking back fondly at the system. Such a shame that Sega was poorly managed and was already dying by the time the DC was in the middle of its heyday. I ended up selling my DC eventually but have since re bought the system. I missed out on all the 2d stuff the first time around but this time I will make sure to get them.

Happy birthday Sega Dreamcast.

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