Fifteen years ago, a console was released. It was short lived. It was ahead of its time. And, for many, it remains a beloved console.
Feel free to celebrate and share your memories of the Dreamcast in the comments! You can also take some time to read a couple of chapters from Dreamcast Worlds, or even make some Dreamcast Blingees if you’d like.
And to clarify: November 27, 1998 was the release date of the Dreamcast in Japan — it later released in America on September 9, 1999. The Japanese date came first!
Comments
49 responses to “Happy 15th Birthday, Dreamcast!”
Wow. I feel old now.
It’s funny I was thinking about the Dreamcast launch just last Thursday when I was sitting at my desk watching the clock so I could go and get my new Xbone. Remembering sitting the classroom on November 30, 1999 as a year 9 student for the LONGEST F*CKING DAY EVER.
Also amazing to think that 15 years ago nobody freaked out or had a massive internet cry at the idea of a console launching in one territory some 10 months before the rest of the world. Imagine the tears if Sony or Microsoft had done that this generation? You’d never hear the end of it, there’d be petitions and boycotts and death-threats.
The Dreamcast was awesome and WAY ahead of its time. Screen on controller? Analogue buttons? Inbuilt modem? The DC did it all first! It’s a real shame it didn’t go on to be more of a success, even if it had some great games.
The PS4 doesn’t come out in Japan until February! That strikes me as odd considering that Sony is a Japanese company. Nobody complains when they’re on the winning side of delayed releases, just don’t visit 2ch 😛
Wow, @dc’s younger than I thought.
No, just emotionally stunted.
Funny story… well not so much funny as heartbreaking.
A friend back in primary school had a dreamcast and once he discovered Sega abandoned it he literally threw it away with the games, i mean he ripped the cords out of the tv and chucked it in the bin. I’m not exaggerating here, i really wish i was.
The kid was always a self absorbed spoiled brat, he was the kid everyone knew and loathed because they won’t shut up about their new consoles and how awesome it and they are.
But you salvaged it, right?
I wish i did, i would have thought the kids parents seen some sense and bought it back in but after that i don’t know what happened to it, someone probably took it from the bin that night.
Everyday i wished i took it but the kid would have been the little shit that would of accused me of stealing it.
I remember hiring a Dreamcast with Sonic Adventure and Blue Stinger from the local Civic Video when it first came out. Sadly I never bought one, been thinking about trying to get one off EBay for the last few years.
Blue Stinger is still one of my favourite bad games ever.
Best to just leave it a memory unless you want it for a collection. It hasn’t aged as badly as some, but a lot of what made it exciting was exploration of the new tech and in retrospect that led to a lot of failed experiments. There’s a lot of stuff that was a near miss. A step on the right path at the time but now we’re used to what it led to it feels clumsy and wrong.
Can’t disagree more. The DC still has a huge community. Homebrew and published games are still available – being made. The inbuilt modem etc still make it viable. I have several dreamcasts and play/tinker with them all the time. I’ve burnt many a disc to play various PC ports (legally using map files etc that I own). Soul calibur, powerstone etc still great to play. I still hook up House of the dead 2 to a CRT.
I thought i liked my Dreamcast but in hindsight Its pretty shit. Loud, overheats and freezes. Besides Soul Calibur, Sonic and Tonyhawk2 its not that good. Shenmue is overrated too. The Dreamcast failed for that reason.
Buy one if you want, but dont be fooled by its cult following. There are better consoles from that generation. .
Still my fave console by far. Bright, fun arcade quality games in your home, this was truly a first!
HOTD2, Crazy Taxy 1 & 2, Shenmue 1 & 2,Marvel vs Capcom 2, Outrigger, Sonic, Tony Hawk 2, Powerstone 1 & 2, Ferrari 355 Challenge, Bleemcast 😉 …man I could keep going.
I will for you!
Soul Calibre, Toy Commander, Metropolis Street Racer, Sega Rally 2…
It was a bit like a worse version of the N64, in that it didn’t get as much 3rd party support as the Playstation did, but it got some absolutely brilliant exclusives.
How could I forget MSR, the precurser to Project Gotham :-D, also Soul Calibre, hell I even had 18 Wheels (my mate was a games tester in London on that, I think it nearly drove him the edge of insanity through boredom).
Don’t forget Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Jet Set Radio, Grandia 2, and Skies of Arcadia.
<3 Dreamcast
Ok i know it wasnt as good as it first installment on the Sega Saturn – but you all forgot Virtual On 2.
“Crazy Taxy”? Sounds like a shoot-em-up in the State Revenue Office!
I remember a friend really wanted the Dreamcast because of how revolutionary it was supposed to be, then he ended up getting a Playstation 2 instead. That’s the extent of my experience with the console.
Yaaay!!
http://i.imgur.com/BB1Pl.jpg (Swap 11th to 15th)
I miss you lil’ buddy.
I remember playing games on the big BIG screen at the Reading Cinema in Sydney. It looked awesome.
I still have one on the shelf somewhere, anyone want it?
I already have two, but I would like games…
Can download the ISO’s online. DC’s have no copy protection and the games can be burned onto regular CD’s with several programs around.
Was one of the issues with it when it was in production, just how easy it was to pirate games. I always buy my games, but for a retro gaming fan, it is an absolute blessing to be able to burn games for discontinued systems.
I know. I used to have practically every game. But I misplaced my huge folder of games and frankly, i don’t want to spend another 50ish hours finding, downloading, converting, burning and testing discs.
*edited out request for price due to not being allowed to spend money on glorious but not really needed items.
Hmmm, very tempting. How much?
Oh, you guys are offering money? I was gonna give it away.
Goddamn it guys you really dropped the ball there!
Nah, give this dude All The Monies. Dreamcast is still boss as hell. To this very day.
I’ll take it!
Sure, drop me an email. xbox $ mudgee $ net
If someone wanted to trade me for a current PS3 title, that would be cool. I think I have two controllers, rumble pack, the little memory, mini console thingy etc. etc.
I prefer to celebrate the US release, I mean c’mon, how can I not celebrate the best console ever made without the coolest date of 9/9/99
I remember going to the EB in Penrith every Wednesday, and playing Soul Calibur on their imported display unit, with some guy whose name I never even learned.
And then when I finally got the console, I couldn’t save games for something like a week because the memory cards weren’t available at the same time as the console. I replayed the opening bits of Sonic Adventure so many times…
HAHAHAHA i remember doing the same thing i got so sick of that first area it made me weep with joy when i finally could save.
I went into my local EB Games at about 4pm on launch day (after school) only to find that while I could get my DC, their shipment of Sonic Adventure was yet to arrive.
EB ended up giving me a free copy of Hydro Thunder to borrow until their shipment of Sonic Adventure came in (they must have been a nicer company back then).
It was ok though, the console shipped with a demo disk that allowed you to play Ready 2 Rumble boxing 2 player. That kept me and my mates busy over the Sonic-free weekend.
I was in the same situation (waiting on Sonic Adventure), but my local EB lent me Mortal Kombat Gold. Strangely, some of my fondest memories are waiting for games that kept getting delayed (House of the Dead 2, Shenmue, etc.). I’d get myself super hyped up for them, and they’d generally blow me away when they arrived.
Haha, that’s the same EB that I got my Dreamcast from! I remember seeing Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure running on that import unit, and one both blew me away – nothing at the time could touch them. Now I’ve got Soul Calibur running on my phone, and both on my Xbox 360. Soul Calibur still looks pretty as hell. I miss those days a lot. So many great games on the Dreamcast. 4 player San Francisco Rush 2049 sessions with my brother and my cousins were hard to beat! Grandia II was brilliant, Shadowman was the grown-up Zelda I’d always wanted, and there’s way too many games I’d never have enough room to wax lyrical about.
RIP, my sweet prince.
I remember buying mine for $500 in EB Chadstone with Evil Dead, Shenmue and one of my favourite games ever, Shadowman. Still play it every now and then, have about 15 bought games and another 40 or 50 burnt games i got for $100 from the Trading post.
P.S. YAR YAR YAR YAR YAR
Oh man the memories, I went to London as an 18 year old backpacker to get a job in bar. Answered an ad for video games tester in the paper (sounds suss now right?). Next minute I am testing games for the Dreamcast, playing Phantasy Star Online whilst being paid 5 pound an hour. Best job ever.
The Dreamcast was an awesome console, and I was sad to see it die. Sega had released too many consoles immediately prior to it, and the price was a bit prohibitive. Marvel vs Capcom 2 was the best game for it, but there were almost no six-button controllers to find(and rewire to an arcade stick). You could also edit the disks with a bit of know-how, so for MvC2 in particular, you could change the music and the colour palette of the characters. There were some famous matches with a white Magneto and a mango Sentinel due to this bootlegging, and Capcom put those alternate colours in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 as a nod to the fans.
MvC2 is one of my all-time favourite games, so much so that I bought a Sega Naomi(the arcade version of the Dreamcast) to get the correct speed settings for MvC2(it’s too fast/slow on ports and the timer is fast too). I’ve wired the Naomi into a PC case but I can’t get the 5.1 volts despite having a Capcom I/O… if anyone knows a good way of doing that, let me know please! =)
5.1 volts is easy with a simple circuit. Less than $20 worth of parts.
It might be easy if you know how, but I don’t know how and neither does anyone I’ve asked. I am using an ATX power supply with set voltages(12, 5). My current plan atm is to grab a variable resistor from a dead power supply or grab a physics textbook.
Don’t use a variable resistor, you will end up frying the board. Use a voltage regulator circuit. Anyone with any electronics experience can make one up for you, easy peasy.
Thank you so much! This is exactly the kind of lead I needed! 😀
I bought mine on a whim in 2000 – I still have it today. I bought it without any real expectations, prompted by comments by some IRC friends from the States about Chu Chu Rocket. I can’t even remember which games I got for it when I bought it – but I remember being blown away by Soul Calibur with its gorgeous, crisp graphics.
Happy Anniversary, Dreamcast.
Heres to the last console system to embrace new game styles and fully back creative ideas in videogaming to the hilt. It’s a shame those days are gone, but the memories and experiences are still there for me to play whenever I get too disenfranchised with modern gaming.
The Power Stone games blew my mind. Playing the second title 4-player was delicious insanity.
Soul Calibur was incredible.
And no love for Skies of Arcadia guys? That was the game that taught me there were other JRPGs to love besides Final Fantasy.
Pound for pound the best console and exclusive titles ever.
I have fond memories of my dreamcast. Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Crazy Taxi, Marvel vs. Capcom, Virtua Tennis, some soccer game I had.. Internet support. Screen in controller and innovations like using the memory card as a tamagochi etc. Cool console, man.