Dreamcast 20th Anniversary!

[xelement5x]

So guys, the 20th Anniversary of the US launch of the Dreamcast is upon us in less than a month.

Anyone got big plans for stuff they hope to do in September?

I'm trying to get some photos and stuff taken in advance to celebrate during the week/month and post them on Instagram. Trying to think of a catchy hashtag though, I was thinking like #dreamcast20years or something. Any ideas? Maybe other people that are IG posters want to join in as well?

[SegataS]

[SegataS]

[Joe Redifer]

My Genesis just turned 30 a few weeks ago and now my Dreamcast turns 20? Christ. I tell ya though, that was an amazing 10 years or awesome progress.

[Blades]

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

[SegataS]

Think I will marathon some DC games.

[SegataS]

Ah, fuck it.

I want to tell my Dreamcast story. It's 1998 and like most people, they are used to N64 and PS1 games and in some cases like me also still playing Game Gear and SNES. Gaming was rapidly growing. Since first playing Atari 2600 I wanted to explore worlds in 3D. NES I would look at the backgrounds of games more than anything. I wanted to fully explore them. I tried my best for years to imagine what it would look like. I was also heavily into electronics in general and had a weird affinity for their aesthetic design. Late 90s electronics stopped being boring black or silver objects. They added colors and translucent/transparent colors and more curves. Not sure about anyone else but it seemed so futuristic to me.

One day in 1998 I walked into a Media Play as I often did to check out the games. A schoolmate was working there. We got to talking about games and he mentioned a new rumored console that would have graphics so realistic it would blow our mind. I looked over and saw a copy of Myst on PC on the shelf and grabbed it. "Like this good but in real-time?" He's like "Yeah man! Exactly!" I just had to find out what this was. I went to Harmons our local grocery store and grabbed all the gaming magazines I could find. The one that got me was Next Gen Magazine. It had Dreamcast on the cover. It talked about some game called Shenmue. It looked so real! You could explore a town in Japan! You could pick up random objects! Turn on/off lights! This was blowing my fucking mind! This was it! The console looked so sleek! The controller was so futuristic! The graphics are out of this world! It was everything I ever wanted! Then a certain EGM magazine showed a game that had so much promise. The UI was so sleek. Graphics were unreal! Said it was Star Fox but grown-up. I NEED THIS! Geist Force. I read every magazine I could find until launch about the DC.


Everywhere in magazines and in stores, I saw those big posters. 9/9/99. I wanted one so bad! Sadly we are not a wealthy family so I was not able to get one...until 2001 when they were $50 new. Still, I got Shenmue and other games. I have never had a game live up to everything I wanted and more before or since. The console still felt like everything I loved about it. Sure I got an Xbox and Gamecube and enjoyed those. Dreamcast just had something special about it. I have never been so taken as a gamer. I would in 99 go to Media Play and play the Kiosk until they kicked me out. Crazy Taxi and DOA2 felt so next-gen. Crazy Taxi with a sprawling city and people were walking about! Reallocations! For DOA2 it was so crisp, bright and colorful. Then I saw cloth physics for the first time. A coat flapping in the wind!

I was just so in aw of this system. To date, it's the only retro console I have hooked up to my HDTV. I still wear the DC T-shirt on occasion. Always wear my Dreamcast watch. No system comes close to bringing me as much joy as a gamer than DC.

[SegaAMD]

My gamer story is split between before and after Dreamcast, many friends of mine left the gaming world after Dreamcast's early cancellation.

We have power, the internet has given us a voice, if we were more organized, we could demand SEGA's return to the fray, but what annoys me most is the fans who think Sega is better now serving these other companies, honestly these guys dishonor the tradition.

Sega needs to come back, and we're getting old and after our generation is gone, it's over.

[axel]

Wow time flies, I still remember seeing those ads with "it's thinking" and 9/9/99. First game I saw running was NFL 2K, then Soul Caliber, Ready 2 Rumble, House of the Dead 2, finally Sonic Adventure a little later on.

To me the Dreamcast represented the first modern console, the 5th gen consoles could do 3D but often looked like a blurry, pixelated mess, the Dreamcast games looked really good (and to me they still hold up today). It was also the first home console that could do pixel perfect ports of 2D arcade titles like Marvel vs Capcom and KOF '98. The PS2, GC and Xbox might have done better but the Dreamcast did it all first.

[Team Andromeda]

I got my DC in the 1st week of December 1998 with Godzilla, VF3tb Pen Pen a 2nd pad and a Godzilla VUM. I remember being sad enough to record footage of the VF3 machine in the Arcade down Cardiff and compare it to the DC version, where I could basically see no different. It was just amazing to see VF3 running on it. Pen Pen was an early glimpse of the systems stunning High Res textures, but the best part was when my import shop got Sonic Adv stock in the day before Christmas Eve 1998 and I spent that Christmas playing Sonic and really being taken on an amazing adventure, the Hub world alone was incredible (at the time) the sense of scale unmatched at the time and I just remember loving levels like Windy Valley and Speed Highway and the music score was also incredible

I so wish SEGA would remake Sonic Adv tbh.

[Yharnamresident]

Might as well tell my unimpressive story.

Back in the day, the only game I ever knew about on the Dreamcast was Crazy Taxi. Its a game I've never given a shit about, as a preteen and as an adult. Though in the late 90s I was playing Sonic 2 nonstop, if I knew Sonic Adventure existed on the Dreamcast then I would've begged for one. I still didn't know about Sonic Adventure until the late 2000s, and ended up getting my first Dreamcast in 2013.

So honestly there wasn't enough exposure. If they wanted my preteen dollars, they should found a way to make me aware that Sonic Adventure existed.

[Hairlesswookiee]

Man...the Dreamcast is still one of my favorite systems to this day.

This was the first console I had the money to buy on release day. I was 19, out of school, working and going to school. As soon as Electronics Boutique started taking orders I pre-ordered the system, extra controller, two memory cards, Soul Caliber, NFL 2K, and Power Stone. For maybe a good 3 months I went in on every payday to pay more on the balance so I had everything paid for on release day. I took off 9/9 and 9/10 because the store was opening early at the mall to celebrate the launch.

When I arrived that morning I was super excited and when I got there 20 minutes early there was already a small line of people waiting. The employees were all wearing black shirts with the orange Dreamcast logo. When they finally opened the door they had a bunch of orange balloons around the store and had different stations with games and accessories in case anyone wanted to grab anything else that they didn't already order. When the line finally got moving and I arrived at the count the manager was there and said "Are you ready? It seems like you've been waiting forever huh?" Then they came up with the huge box that they had my order in and went through it with me to ensure everything was present. I quickly got back home and other than bathroom and food breaks I spent the entire day playing Power Stone and Soul Caliber. When my roommates finally got home later that day we spent a good 4 hours taking turns with Soul Caliber and it was the new multiplayer entertainment that took the mantle from Goldeneye for quite a while.

[Heresy Dragon]

Thanks for sharing your Dreamcast launch stories. They're interesting.

The Dreamcast launch was a complete mess here in Australia. We didn't get the console until 30 November 1999 and we only had limited units and certain games, no VMUs, and so on. Online features weren't available until well into the new year. I didn't have enough money for the console at launch, so continued to save up for it over the next six months.

In the meantime, a friend purchased a DC close to launch and I spent two weekends at his house playing my way through Sonic Adventure, having the time of my life. This was everything a 3D Sonic game should have been and more. My friend also had Soul Calibur and we and other friends played multiplayer matches often, well into the console's lifespan.

I rented a DC with Crazy Taxi and SEGA Rally 2 soon after and loved the former. Me and another mate took turns playing it that night, blasting The Offspring on the stereo (my friend was Offspring's biggest fan). SEGA Rally 2 was okay, but felt lacklustre next to the Saturn original.

I finally purchased the system, Sonic Adventure, SEGA Rally 2, and a VMU on 20 May 2000. That afternoon and evening I played Sonic Adventure non-stop, enjoying every minute of it. It truly felt like the next generation of gaming had arrived and I was glad to finally be a part of it. I soon added Crazy Taxi and many other games to my collection.

The Dreamcast was my favourite console during its lifespan and for many years afterwards. It contained so many games that showed SEGA at it's creative peak. I had so much fun with it over the years with friends and in single player games. I was mortified that SEGA discontinued the system in 2001, not believing how stupid mass gamerdom was at believing Sony's hype and ignoring how high quality the DC and its games were.

Dreamcast was SEGA's swansong and it shone so brightly it was blinding.