Happy Birthday Dreamcast!!

[omgroffles]

Just realized it was 9 years ago, on 09/09/99, when the Dreamcast was launched in North America.
I decided to pay a little home-age to one of my favorite video game consoles of all time.

Though it was quickly pulled from production just a few years later, the Dreamcast is the console on which Sega debuted innovations such as

• internet connectivity out of the box (as well as broadband support)
• first home console to officially support online play (ChuChu Rocket)
• cel-shaded animation in Jet Grind Radio (inspiring titles such as Viewtiful Joe)
• analog triggers (now an industry standard)
• memory cards with LCDs (known as Visual Memory Units or VMUs)
• first-party keyboard and mouse for internet browsing and games (Quake III Arena supported this setup and UT3 for PS3 followed)
• quick-time-events in Shenmue (famously used in God of War)
• the first console MMO, Phantasy Star Online (even included language translators)
• perfect arcade ports (Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK, Soul Calibur)

The Dreamcast was home to some of the most innovative software that Sega would ever produce, setting several trends that are still followed to this day. The system's architecture was very simple yet powerful, fitting into a case smaller than almost every major console ever to be released. Had the Dreamcast only gotten the attention it deserved, video games as we know it may have turned out a little different.

 

[Paranoid Mouse C]

Happy B-Day to the console that basically introduced me to homebrew. I love you, Dreamcast.

 

[Hadrian]

I love you DC.

I've dropped you so many times while moving house and yet you still work! Not had a single problem with my Dreamcast and it is so easy to get homebrew running.

Unlike most consoles I have (I'm looking at you PS1 & PS2) it gets uses every month if not for its games but also the homebrew.

Can I just add that there was cell shading in games before the Dreamcast came out.

EDIT: No it was the first, I'm wrong.

 

[NeSchn]

I remember playing homebrew on it, my friends brother did some crazy stuff and we were playing old NES games on it. Isn't really easy to pirate DreamCast games too because it has no lockout system so you can just burn them and put them in.

 

[WildWon]

Methinks i'm hooking mine back up tonight for some Marvel Vs Capcom 2 action. Pull out the old arcade joystick. Mmmmm. Yeah.

Happy B-day DC!!! I miss you're ways.

 

[Galactus]

Happy birthday dreamcast even though you bascially screwed us consumers who invested in you.

 

[omgroffles]

Happy birthday dreamcast even though you bascially screwed us consumers who invested in you.

What? How? There were a ton of great games that came out, and if you still have your console you can download practically all of them for FREE. Seriously it's easy: just torrent the game you want, burn it to a disc, and play it in your Dreamcast! It's as easy as pirating music.

Besides, it was Sony and its hype machine that killed the Dreamcast, Sega didn't screw you. In fact they still took Dreamcasts in for repairs up until just 2 years ago IIRC

 

[Joe88]

Happy birthday dreamcast even though you bascially screwed us consumers who invested in you.

What? How? There were a ton of great games that came out, and if you still have your console you can download practically all of them for FREE. Seriously it's easy: just torrent the game you want, burn it to a disc, and play it in your Dreamcast! It's as easy as pirating music.

Besides, it was Sony and its hype machine that killed the Dreamcast, Sega didn't screw you. In fact they still took Dreamcasts in for repairs up until just 2 years ago IIRC

that so called "hyped machine" went on to become the worlds best system video game system with over 140mil sold to date and still going

at least they didnt screw me, my friend gave it to me his dreamcast after hearing what happened and got an xbox
only played sonic adventure on it and crazy taxi, been wanted to mess around with burnt games and such but didnt really care that much

 

[JPH]

*shuffles in closet to find old stack of burned Dreamcast games*

Good times...

 

[Try2bcool]

memory cards with LCDs (known as Visual Memory Units or VMUs)

Also known as battery eating MF's...

Pirating the games was not easy at all, to rip them yourself, you had to make your own interface to hook the DC to the IDE port on the PC, as the DC used a proprietary GDROM drive and disks (for originals). There were not that many people posting them to USEnowhat, so you had to use IRC or P2P, which would sometimes take months to complete one game. They could only be burnt/copied at the time with Discjuggler. The early releases had to have a boot disk, until someone finally figured out how to patch it onto the disk image to make them self-booting.

You have to hand it to the DC though, it has some groundbreaking games like Seaman, Shenmue, Soul Caliber, Jet Set Radio, and Metropolis Street Racer, to name a few.

 

[Orc]

One of my Dreamcasts got filled with ants for some reason but it still works, I think I'ma go play it now. Some 3rd Strike or Garou or so...

I think the reason the ants got to it is: IT'S SWEET!

One of the 4 consoles that I bought multiples of just because and one of the 4 that stays hooked in my room TV.

EDIT: Oh I found Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

 

[Joe88]

One of my Dreamcasts got filled with ants for some reason but it still works,

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/63

may be the cause XD

 

[Holaitsme]

i remeber buying it at best buy when they had it for $50 the only games i bought for it was chicken run and resident evil 2.

 

[Orc]

One of my Dreamcasts got filled with ants for some reason but it still works,

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/63

may be the cause XD

Oooh creepy. Must have been during all those days I left it on because of PSO. Anyway, time to get off the computer and play some Jojo. I also found I bought Maken X

and Hundred Swords

.

 

[Galactus]

Happy birthday dreamcast even though you bascially screwed us consumers who invested in you.

What? How? There were a ton of great games that came out, and if you still have your console you can download practically all of them for FREE. Seriously it's easy: just torrent the game you want, burn it to a disc, and play it in your Dreamcast! It's as easy as pirating music.

Besides, it was Sony and its hype machine that killed the Dreamcast, Sega didn't screw you. In fact they still took Dreamcasts in for repairs up until just 2 years ago IIRC

Sony didn't have anything to do with it nor hype(it was a awesome system),if sega didn't make such awful investments like producing the mega failure known as shenmue the dreamcast might have live on.I have to give credit to nintendo for not bailing on their gamecube consumers.

 

[omgroffles]

that so called "hyped machine" went on to become the worlds best system video game system with over 140mil sold to date and still going

at least they didnt screw me, my friend gave it to me his dreamcast after hearing what happened and got an xbox
only played sonic adventure on it and crazy taxi, been wanted to mess around with burnt games and such but didnt really care that much

The PS2 wasn't even impressive until almost a year and a half later. Ah but who could forget the timeless launch title classics such as Dynasty Warriors 2, ESPN International Track and Field, Street Fighter EX3

To be fair there were others but let's be honest: Tekken Tag wasn't the greatest, Ridge Racer V was stale, never played TimeSplitters but I'm sure it was just fine.

The Dreamcast broke out with incredible and memorable games like Power Stone, Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, Ready 2 Rumble, and NFL 2K.

The PS2 wasn't forward thinking enough. There were 2 controller ports, no internet connectivity out of the box, the controller remained practically untouched (it even still had the "analog" switch, wtf?), and it was $299. I guess it was the DVD player that hooked many, but I already had 2 by then (didn't know there were so many people who didn't).

The Dreamcast already did the things I mentioned in my first post. The launch was incredibly strong. It was great and everything was laid out from the get go, the only thing that stopped even further success was Sony's hype that wouldn't be justified until Sons of Liberty.

It was all perception. Sega couldn't have had a stronger launch and follow-up, but they just couldn't shake everyone's fears of the Saturn. Sony had a weak launch and really there was nothing until a year later. Sure Sony made up for it in the long run (8 years), but it was really the initial hype that kept the PS2 afloat before quality actually titles started coming in to make it the legendary console it is today.

Posts merged.

QUOTE(Galactus @ Sep 9 2008, 11:23 PM) Happy birthday dreamcast even though you bascially screwed us consumers who invested in you.

What? How? There were a ton of great games that came out, and if you still have your console you can download practically all of them for FREE. Seriously it's easy: just torrent the game you want, burn it to a disc, and play it in your Dreamcast! It's as easy as pirating music.

Besides, it was Sony and its hype machine that killed the Dreamcast, Sega didn't screw you. In fact they still took Dreamcasts in for repairs up until just 2 years ago IIRC

Sony didn't have anything to do with it nor hype(it was a awesome system),if sega didn't make such awful investments like producing the mega failure known as shenmue the dreamcast might have live on.I have to give credit to nintendo for not bailing on their gamecube consumers.

I agree it was an awesome system, but come on, I don't think we can say the Dreamcast would have failed had the PS2 never existed.

And I loved Shenmue

JPH edit: please dont double post

 

[Galactus]

that so called "hyped machine" went on to become the worlds best system video game system with over 140mil sold to date and still going

at least they didnt screw me, my friend gave it to me his dreamcast after hearing what happened and got an xbox
only played sonic adventure on it and crazy taxi, been wanted to mess around with burnt games and such but didnt really care that much

The PS2 wasn't even impressive until almost a year and a half later. Ah but who could forget the timeless launch title classics such as Dynasty Warriors 2, ESPN International Track and Field, Street Fighter EX3

To be fair there were others but let's be honest: Tekken Tag wasn't the greatest, Ridge Racer V was stale, never played TimeSplitters but I'm sure it was just fine.

The Dreamcast broke out with incredible and memorable games like Power Stone, Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, Ready 2 Rumble, and NFL 2K.

The PS2 wasn't forward thinking enough. There were 2 controller ports, no internet connectivity out of the box, the controller remained practically untouched (it even still had the "analog" switch, wtf?), and it was $299. I guess it was the DVD player that hooked many, but I already had 2 by then (didn't know there were so many people who didn't).

The Dreamcast already did the things I mentioned in my first post. The launch was incredibly strong. It was great and everything was laid out from the get go, the only thing that stopped even further success was Sony's hype that wouldn't be justified until Sons of Liberty.

It was all perception. Sega couldn't have had a stronger launch and follow-up, but they just couldn't shake everyone's fears of the Saturn. Sony had a weak launch and really there was nothing until a year later. Sure Sony made up for it in the long run (8 years), but it was really the initial hype that kept the PS2 afloat before quality actually titles started coming in to make it the legendary console it is today.

Posts merged.

QUOTE(Galactus @ Sep 9 2008, 11:23 PM) Happy birthday dreamcast even though you bascially screwed us consumers who invested in you.

What? How? There were a ton of great games that came out, and if you still have your console you can download practically all of them for FREE. Seriously it's easy: just torrent the game you want, burn it to a disc, and play it in your Dreamcast! It's as easy as pirating music.

Besides, it was Sony and its hype machine that killed the Dreamcast, Sega didn't screw you. In fact they still took Dreamcasts in for repairs up until just 2 years ago IIRC

Sony didn't have anything to do with it nor hype(it was a awesome system),if sega didn't make such awful investments like producing the mega failure known as shenmue the dreamcast might have live on.I have to give credit to nintendo for not bailing on their gamecube consumers.

I agree it was an awesome system, but come on, I don't think we can say the Dreamcast would have failed had the PS2 never existed.

And I loved Shenmue

JPH edit: please dont double post

I loved it to but it cost to much money with no commercial sussuc.It was probably the biggest flop in gaming history that cost sega.

 

[Paranoid Mouse C]

Do you think sega will ever throw it's hat into the console market again?

 

[xalphax]

happy birthday, best console ever!

 

[Mei-o]

I never owned one but I've played Dreamcast games on an emu, I loved Power Stone so much! Happy Birthday DC!