Dreamcast 10th birthday coming up...

Hello everyone.

I was just reminded by a member of the PSNPR.COM group (a Playstation 3 fan page), that the Dreamcast had a birthday coming up. I was like: "Really!? Already it's 10th year?" and boy oh boy, time sure does fly!



Ten years ago (1999) I was a sophomore at college, and I was flunking my classes, which is why I started drinking hehehehe, and still was receiving my favorite magazine of all time EGM (no longer published! :( ) and there was a lot of hype behind this SEGA console. The specs were amazing at the time:

RISC CPU (SH4) by Hitachi
128-bit on-die vector graphics engine
PowerVR2 GPU
Yamaha AICA sound processor
Built-in Modem
Modified Windows CE OS
etc. etc.



The system was looking good and it looked promising but... there's always a but... Looking at past SEGA consoles history made me think twice about getting it. I had a Sega Master System when I was like 6 years old. I also had the Sega Genesis, the Sega Game Gear, I was a Sega fanboy! (I didn't have an NES, and I bought a SNES later in the system's lifespan.) Then the SegaCD came... crappy hardware with crappy games. Then the 32X which I almost bought and THANK GOD I didn't. Then finally the super powerful Sega Saturn which nobody knew how to program games for it... So you can see why I was hesitant. After September, SEGA announced that it had sold 500,000 units in a couple of weeks and not only this, it was the best software launch in probably video game history and I had the itch, but I did not cave in. At that time, I was way too much into PCs (Computer Science major yo! :-p) and I left consoles behind (except for my roommates that had a Sony Playstation).

Fast-forward a few years and Sonic Adventure 2 and NBA2K2 happened. That was the first time that I really noticed the system (even though the PS2 was already released by then). One of my housemates (I had moved from the first apartment at this time ;-)) had the Dreamcast and I fell in love with it. We began playing a whole bunch of NBA2k2 and I was sold. I had not seen animation like that ever. Sonic, well, I already had a crush with Sonic (I did loved my Sega Genesis!) and Sonic Adventure 2 was right up my alley. I fell in love once again and the Dreamcast I have right now is that same one that belonged to my housemate lol!!!





(pardon the "hiss"... I forgot to turn off the Fan and my old Sony Cam picks up EVERYTHING! :-p)

Personally, I believe this console had the best games off all systems even going head to head with the PS2. Sega didn't put much faith in it though and stopped selling the system in 2002. Still, Japan was still spitting out games and there were a bunch of them that we had not played. We got the Virtua Tennis, Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi, etc. etc. And let's not forget the cult classics like: Space Channel 5, Shenmue, Ikaruga, Berserk and a bunch of others.

My Top DC Games (in no particular order):

NBA2K2
Rez
Sonic Adventure 2
Grandia 2
Skies of Arcadia
Jet Grind Radio
Metropolis Street Racer
Soul Calibur

Even though Sega is out of the hardware business, at least they retired with dignity creating one of the best consoles ever, bringing us online play to the masses and awesome games. They paved the way for the Xbox (easy of programming and online access) and probably for this new generation of machines.

Dreamcast is #8 on the IGN Top 25 Consoles of ALL TIME

Put it simply, the DREAMCAST should have been more. It is way underrated and a lot of people missed the opportunity of having fun with one of the best consoles that have ever been mass produced!

So if you are reading this, HOP ON EBAY AND LOOK FOR A CONSOLE!!!
You WON'T be disappointed. (and if you are, don't sue me! :-p)


And if you need further proof:

BitMob Blog Entry

MobCast Episode - Reminiscing DC

Check it.