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9/9/99 - the Dreamcast was released in the West |OT| 25th Anniversary

Komatsu

Komatsu

Member
dc-25th.png



In the words of Peter Moore, SEGA of America's CEO at the time:

I did some checking, and realized that the movie Stars Wars: Phantom Menace had enjoyed the biggest opening 24 hours in movie history, grossing over $24 million in ticket sales. Based on our estimates, we were going to go well past that mark. I started talking about the Dreamcast launch being the biggest opening day in American entertainment media history.
Click to expand...




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Please click in one of the images above to be directed to the corresponding interview.

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There were 619 games released for the Dreamcast in all its regions during the console's lifetime. Its best-selling game was Sonic Adventure, with 2.5 million units sold.

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MULTI-PLATFORM COMPARISONS​


Here's a quick comparison between two multiplat titles - our favorite anime waifu simulator Dead or Alive 2 and Ferrari F355 challenge. The images were captured straight from the console, courtesy of the great Brazilian minds of the VCDECIDE channel (all their comparisons are great, BTW). The PS2 looks muddier since it was outputting video in dirty interlaced composited, whereas the Dreamcast feed is in 480p through VGA.

DlagDLS.png

The PS2 ports usually handle geometry better - DOA2 for the PS2 has stages with bigger craters, better angular geography, etc. However, reflections, lighting and transparency (look at that Ferrari's windshield) looked amazing on the Dreamcast, thanks to the PowerVR2's Order-indepedent Transparency, which does not require the console to sort out rendering orders for any kind of alpha compositing. There are many ways of handling transparency here, some of which were documented in the dev docs for the Windows CE kit


Tell us, GAF:​

  1. When (if ever) did you get a Dreamcast?​
  2. Where were you in 9.9.99? Where in line at a local retailer? Did you take part in one of the "midnight launch parties"?​
  3. What are some of your best memories of the Dreamcast?​
 
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Wulfer

Wulfer

Member
A console way ahead of its time that should have smoked the PS2. PSO alone was doing things not seen on a console, only on PC. The videogame media was just as guilty as Sega management for the failure. Sega was competing against the media just as much as they were competing against Sony. Articles like how can Sega compete against a powerful company like Sony were rampant.
 
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kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
Got the game on launch day. My friends and I got out of school early to go grab our launch units and games and came back to my house to play everything. Still the greatest video game launch in my lifetime.

Probably my fondest memory was unlocking everything in Capcom vs SNK in one night. We had people earning points on the dreamcast, two people earning points on neogeo pocket colors, one guy resting and we would cycle through positions so that everybody got a break.
 
clem84

clem84

Gold Member
Thanks! I was waiting for someone to make a thread about this.

Limited Run Games have Dreamcast merch, and they will have game specific merch next month. I will order the cards. :messenger_smiling_hearts:

limitedrungames.com

Sega Dreamcast Anniversary Collection

Sega Dreamcast Anniversary Collection Pre-orders Close October 13, 2024
limitedrungames.com limitedrungames.com
 
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ChiefDada

ChiefDada

Gold Member
Happy Birthday to the Best Console Ever. I remember my Dad coming back from work with the Dreamcast in hand. No special occasion; he bought it for me and my brothers just because, and the the rest was history. Ready to Rumble, House of the Dead, Power Stone, Sonic Adventure 2, Soul Calibur, the list goes on...
 
Celcius

Celcius

°Temp. member
Man time flies. I didn’t get mine on launch day but bought a refurbished one a few months later from Funcoland. I remember at first I was going to wait on the ps2 but I got so hyped I bought the Dreamcast instead. I’m really glad I did because it was an amazing system.
 
Timberwolf25

Timberwolf25

Member
I still have 2 systems. 1 JPN and 1 US.
I'm thinking of doing one of those mods to it that lets you replace the disc drive for a SD card reader/SSD.
 
Timberwolf25

Timberwolf25

Member
Chu Chu Rocket is my wife's all time 4 player game. I've always thought it was a missed opportunity to not release an updated/remastered version of it with HD graphics

Edit: It's also the only game where she can consistently beat me, which is maybe why it's her fav :)
 
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Timberwolf25

Timberwolf25

Member
That reminds me that I have an old Sony Trinitron in my garage that I've been reluctant to let go because of the light gun games for the DC. I don't even know if it works anymore :(
 
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Diseased Yak

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Woot, nice OT! I still have my launch day Dreamcast, somewhere... I'll have to dig it out and fire it up, probably hasn't been turned on in 15+ years.

*hugs copy of Border Down*
 
DeaconOfTheDank

DeaconOfTheDank

Member
The Dreamcast was my first console. I remember getting it for Christmas of 1999 and playing Sonic Adventure and Toy Commander with my older brother all morning long.

Always makes me feel warm and fuzzy when I think back to those times, thanks for letting me remember OP.
 
Alan Wake

Alan Wake

Member
Love that guy! What a class act he always is. Looking forward to the book, it'll be a must read.

  1. When (if ever) did you get a Dreamcast?
    I bought mine a few months after the European launch. It was roughly 250 USD in my country.

  2. Where were you in 9.9.99? Where in line at a local retailer? Did you take part in one of the "midnight launch parties"?
    Dreamcast launched in October in Europe, but 9/9/99 was a magical launch date. I don't remember the launch to be something special here.

  3. What are some of your best memories of the Dreamcast?
    So many memories... I remember being blown away by Sonic Adventure, spending too many hours in Sega Rally 2, having tons of fun in Jet Set Radio and trying to find the soundtrack, feeling like a pioneer when I went online in dial up in PSO, "living" my life in Shenmue by going to bed when Ryo went to bed... Shenmue II had a big impact on my life since it spurred my interest in China leading me to visit the country a few years later and meeting my wife. I've shown her the game afterwards trying to explain that was where it all started in a sense. I don't think she quite understands. But in 2016 we visited Guilin and Yangshuo together, rented bikes and I listened to the soundtrack from disc 4 while looking at the beautiful scenery.

    What a console. What a time to be a gamer! I still have my launch console plugged in.
 
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Rocky_Balboa

Rocky_Balboa

Member
  1. When (if ever) did you get a Dreamcast?
    I think I got my imported JP Dreamcast in the beginning of 1999. I think I had Sega Rally 2 and maybe some other game. Then a year later or so I got EU Dreamcast.
  2. Where were you in 9.9.99? Where in line at a local retailer? Did you take part in one of the "midnight launch parties"?
    No launch parties.
  3. What are some of your best memories of the Dreamcast?
    So many great memories, but mostly all the multiplayer games. A bunch of friends came over and we would just keep playing different 4-player multiplayer games. Fire Pro Wrestling D was one of the best.
 
SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
In mainland Europe DC was just there, around October. Some retailers didn't carry it at all. But there was awareness about it. Actually quite a few of people around me bought it as well. At school, I was 18 years and 2nd year in college, we spoke about a lot. The launch lineup is for me still the best ever and likely will never be topped considering the careful planning of today. The adoption rate was high and everyone had something. We ended up borrowing our games for this reason.

I picked up Hydro Thunder since I was addicted to it in the Arcade. MvC, Sonic I think. Soul Calibur would release later in Europe but we had VF3 at launch, which didn't do that well... it was likely too old already.

Sometimes we played 4 player Powerstone 2, Spawn etc. The DC was in terms of couch multiplayer a lot like the N64.
 
Vyse

Vyse

Gold Member
TheDarkPhantom said:
Greatest launch of all-time, went to the mall at midnight to pick mine up, stayed up until 4am with my buddy playing Soul Calibur and Sonic, Dreamcast was unforgettable and gone too soon.
Click to expand...
Same. Midnight launch at Electronics Boutique in Las Vegas. Said in another thread, the wrestler China was supposed to be there, but she was a no show. Sonic and Soul Calibur for me as well! Played all night.
 
O

Ozzie666

Member
I triple dipped on the dreamcast, got a japense model early on. Then the 9/9/99 USA model, then moved and got a PAL model. I still think the box is one of the best designs of all time, now the controller is a piece of trash with it's one analog stick.

9/9/99 was pretty crazy, it was looking really good for Dreamcast for a brief period.
 
D

Darsxx82

Member
I couldn't buy it on day one (9/9/99), it was a week later. It was the first console that my parents did not buy to us, but it was my two brothers and I who paid for it. It also helped that it was offered at a very competitive price.

Proud to keep it to this day and which I play from time to time. Of course, I have had to apply its whitening treatment several times because it turned almost yellow 😅

PS. 25 years now😢
 
Cramoss

Cramoss

Member
Man, I remember being fascinated by its graphics everytime I saw someone playing it at the time. I always wanted one but I had no money. Great memories of playing Rush 2049 multiplayer with some friends after school.
 
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Shake Your Rump

Shake Your Rump

Member
I was too busy playing EverQuest to care about Dreamcast. By the time my friend convinced me to try it, he had the entire catalog on CDRs. I tried many games and they were all… meh. N64 was more fun.
 
Sojiro

Sojiro

Member
  • When (if ever) did you get a Dreamcast?
I was late to the party with the Dreamcast, as I was knee deep in with the PS1 and eagerly awaiting the PS2 launch so I never even considered getting one initially. I didn't get a unit until 2005, so after it had discontinued for a while. I ordered one off eBay for the cheap and just burned games for a while to try the system out. I saw the that I had missed something awesome with the console.
  • What are some of your best memories of the Dreamcast?
The first thing I tried was Sonic Adventure, and at first I was impressed by how it looked, but even then I felt that playing it was really rough, and was actually disappointed with it. After that I believe I went into Phantasy Star Online next, as I was a big fan on PS IV. While it played completely different, I was really into it, even playing it strictly offline, and would dump a lot of time into it. The two big games for me were Jet Grind Radio and Shenmue, both were games that I just never had experienced anything like before. With JGR you could see a tiny bit of some Tony Hawk influence in it, but everything else was wholly unique to that game. I still consider JGR as one of my top games of all time, I truly love that game so much. Shenmue really blew me away with just how amazing everything felt in this little slice of Japan that they created. The NPCs going about their day, to just all the little small things you can interact with really gave the impression you were in a living world. The impact that had on me for the time will never be forgotten.

These days I still play the Dreamcast quite often, and even physically collect games for the console as I have really become a fan on the system. It really is a damn shame the console's life was cut short because I would have loved to see what a full 5 ish years of having support would have done for the library the Dreamcast was building.
 
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SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
Ozzie666 said:
I triple dipped on the dreamcast, got a japense model early on. Then the 9/9/99 USA model, then moved and got a PAL model. I still think the box is one of the best designs of all time, now the controller is a piece of trash with it's one analog stick.

9/9/99 was pretty crazy, it was looking really good for Dreamcast for a brief period.
Click to expand...

The controller was absolutely dreadful. Who thought it was a good idea to put the cable at the bottom? You could lock it into place behind the VMU slots but it was still horrible. The d-pad was horror, the buttons weren't comfy, and the entire thing was a nightmare to use for prolonged gaming sessions. Besides, you had to work with 2 less buttons than Saturn, PS had.

The best thing about it was the VMU. Which did deplete fast and then there was the beep sound.

I think the assembly itself and the controller were fairly bad. The thing was noisy, and issues with reading discs weren't uncommon. The Saturn did feel like a better product, with a better media player too.
 
Timberwolf25

Timberwolf25

Member
SkylineRKR said:
The controller was absolutely dreadful. Who thought it was a good idea to put the cable at the bottom? You could lock it into place behind the VMU slots but it was still horrible. The d-pad was horror, the buttons weren't comfy, and the entire thing was a nightmare to use for prolonged gaming sessions. Besides, you had to work with 2 less buttons than Saturn, PS had.

The best thing about it was the VMU. Which did deplete fast and then there was the beep sound.

I think the assembly itself and the controller were fairly bad. The thing was noisy, and issues with reading discs weren't uncommon. The Saturn did feel like a better product, with a better media player too.
Click to expand...
I loved my DC, but I gotta agree that the controller was a F-up
 
Komatsu

Komatsu

Member
Can we just appreciate how far ahead of its time it was? You can plat it in clear, nice 480p using VGA - no dirt composite image feed here. In age when arcade-perfect ports weren't really a thing, the DC versions of SEGA landmark titles were often better.


Virtua-Fighter-3-Team-Battle-Dreamcast.jpg
 
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