The Dreamcast, a system often said to be ahead of its time, and the last home console that Sega was to release. Releasing in Japan late 1998, and hitting North America and Europe mid 1999 the system was the first home console to use a 128-bit CPU and used a custom version of Windows CE, however only a few games utilized it, as Sega decided to include a simple OS within the discs of games themselves to run them, and most games used that instead. Another thing that the Dreamcast had included was a 56-kbps modem (33.3-kbps in PAL regions) that allowed for online play in games such as Phantasy Star Online and Tetris Online, it also was used for programs such as the Sega Dreamcast Web Browser. Sega had used GD-ROM discs to store the games, they had a capacity of 1.2 GB is larger than a standard CD which holds just over 700 MB of storage, however most games didn’t take up the full capacity and unluckily for Sega the disc reader in the Dreamcast was also able to read CD-ROM discs, and remember how Sega stored the OS in the game discs themselves, this allowed for people to patch their own CDs with the game plus 3 other files and the Dreamcast would think that it was a legitimate disc.At launch the Sega Dreamcast had a few titles that would stand out one of which being Sonic Adventure, Sonic’s jump into 3d which had sold 2.5 million copies for the Dreamcast. The console itself had sold 9.3 million units, the lack of sales could be to the previous flop of the Saturn which had not made many sales falling just under the Dreamcast’s sales at 9.2 million and the complete success of the Sony PlayStation, becoming a serious threat to Sega. Around the same time as the announcement for the Dreamcast also was the announcement of Sony’s new home console, one that rivaled the specs of the Dreamcast and had a beefy launch title list. Many people decided to wait out until the later release of the PlayStation 2 opposed to the Dreamcast, as the PlayStation 2 also had support for PlayStation 1 games and could play back DVD video, which was starting to become more and more popular.
While the PlayStation 2 had more features it didn’t mean that the Dreamcast was totally overshadowed, previously I mentioned how the Dreamcast is considered ahead of its time, it still was the first system to allow online play out of the box, newer systems in the generation, with the exception of the original Xbox, required an external adapter to allow either a broadband or dial up connection to the system, at the time the feature seemed a little silly and a bit odd, yet look at today where every system that comes out has a myriad of online exclusive play or games that are played much more online than in a single player mode. Another neat feature that the Dreamcast had was the VMU which was a memory card, that had a screen and some buttons that allowed you to manage your save files on the go and some games even included little games to run on the VMU itself! But let's not forget one of the coolest things about the Dreamcast, that boot screen, the sound to this day sends chills down my spine, it's so cool, breathy, and simple. Oh and bassy don't forget about how much bass there is.
This was a little longer than intended, and I may have not entirely answered the question, but what do you think, was the Dreamcast a success in your heart, or did you not even look them over?
Last edited by mr_lunar_magnet,
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