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[RetroGamingUK]

We had a thread covering the US launch, but I think it would be interesting to discuss the UK Dreamcast launch experience

I picked mine up the same day Soul Calibur released (along with the rather disappointing Sonic Adventure).

Here’s a few differences with Dreamcast’s launch in the UK and Europe, and the system in general

- UK launch was delayed until 14th October, this was rumoured to be due to British Telecom not getting network support working in time

- There was no “It’s thinking” marketing, every advert was about the online play aspect. We had the “up to 6 billion players” slogan which got banned due to false advertising

- Online play was worse than in America, we had a slow 33kbps modem, and probably only half the amount of online games released

- Due to the above (and as with N64) it gained less marketshare here than in the US, with PlayStation completely dominating

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Some nostalgia…

 

[Daneel Elijah]

Back then my neighbor had one. I was so jealous! But I got a PS2 no long after and MGS2 and GTA 3 made me forget about it pretty fast. Still, I remember being so envious of a 3D sonic when I was playing with their old Mega drive that they had sold to us...

 

[DenchDeckard]

Some nostalgia…

Got that magazine still. Bought mine day one from MVC. can't remember what games I bought. I know power stone was one of my favourites.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Back then my neighbor had one. I was so jealous! But I got a PS2 no long after and MGS2 and GTA 3 made me forget about it pretty fast. Still, I remember being so envious of a 3D sonic when I was playing with their old Mega drive that they had sold to us...

Sega announcing they’d scrapped the Dreamcast was quite a depressing day, I’d been following the rumours online for a few months, but it still hit hard.

A few months later I traded my Dreamcast and games for a PS2 along with Gran Turismo 3, SSX and Zone of the Enders (I played that MGS2 demo to death)

BBC News | BUSINESS | Sega scraps the Dreamcast

 

[Shin-Ra]

I must’ve watched the UK preorder VHS a good 20-30 times before DC launched. Sonic Adventure dolphins footage and rings sound (narrator talking about simultaneous sound channels or something) and “five billion players” stuck in my head most prominently. CEX had Japanese import consoles connected to the big over-counter TV but I didn’t play anything until my own blue-swirled console arrived with Sonic Adventure.

With dialup WWW still a rare luxury and Realplayer (QuickTime if lucky) encoded videos out of reach for another year or two, Bits was one of the few sources of game footage.





Now that’s a nostalgia hit. Funny he says 60MHz instead of 60Hz.

 

[Segaswirl]

I've still got my copy of that magazine somewhere, I bought every issue. The hype for me was unreal.

I got Sonic Adventure and Toy Commander with my Dreamcast. Good times.

 

[SkylineRKR]

The Euro launch was absolutely botched.

It came out to little fanfare and it wasn't even carried by all retailers. They launched with VF3 instead of Soul Calibur in Europe. Which wasn't a huge problem because they launch lineup was awesome regardless. Modem was only 33k. But, in the period fall '99 to fall 2k it was cool to have a DC because it was the most powerful console by far. Multiplatform releases would ofcourse eclipse the N64 and PS versions. And even beyond the PS2 launch the DC still went on with good games, though it would end abruptly around Spring 2001. Very high quality and fast rate of output in those short 2 or 3 years though.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Loved the Dreamcast, some excellent games.

I used to enjoy the built in chat room too with the keyboard.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

And even beyond the PS2 launch the DC still went on with good games, though it would end abruptly around Spring 2001. Very high quality and fast rate of output in those short 2 or 3 years though.

PS2 was always this big shadow hanging over the Dreamcast’s launch.

I remember friends being impressed by Soul Calibur, but they all wanted to wait until PS2 because Sega would ditch it early once Sony’s machine launched, and they were 100% right.

I’d been severely burnt with the Saturn, while I enjoyed the 1996 lineup it really went to shit in 1998, especially the meagre E3 97 lineup and Bernie Stolar’s famous words. The graphics whore in me came out once I saw Soul Calibur running and I bought one immediately.

Come E3 2001 thought that famous MGS2 trailer really turned my head along with the constant online rumours that Sega were working with Acclaim to port Dreamcast games to the PS2.

 

[RoboFu]

So many awesome games in such a short period of time.

 

[Flintty]

One of my favourite consoles of all time. I still have it, and a bunch of games. Including this gem...

 

[hinch7]

Console was way ahead of its time and had some of the best arcade games ever on there in its short life. Such a great machine.

Shame I don't have mine anymore otherwise I would give it a play.

 

[Holammer]

The Euro launch was absolutely botched.

It came out to little fanfare and it wasn't even carried by all retailers. They launched with VF3 instead of Soul Calibur in Europe. Which wasn't a huge problem because they launch lineup was awesome regardless. Modem was only 33k. But, in the period fall '99 to fall 2k it was cool to have a DC because it was the most powerful console by far. Multiplatform releases would ofcourse eclipse the N64 and PS versions. And even beyond the PS2 launch the DC still went on with good games, though it would end abruptly around Spring 2001. Very high quality and fast rate of output in those short 2 or 3 years though.

I believe the Nordic countries got even fewer machines, which pissed off retailers so they never carried the system. Me and a buddy searched a dozen stores on launch day before we got ours.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

The Euro launch was absolutely botched.

It came out to little fanfare and it wasn't even carried by all retailers.

Do you recall which retailers didn’t stock them?

 

[SkylineRKR]

Do you recall which retailers didn’t stock them?

In Benelux the biggest toy stores didn't (mainly Intertoys and Bart Smit), which were the most significant outlets for consoles back then, they had the widest reach with over 500 stores combined. After the Saturn debacle and uncertainty about the DC distribution they decided not to carry it. Those stores were stacked with Playstation and Nintendo.

I believe only dedicated gameshops carried it, as well as Dixons. So it basically never stood a chance over here.

Reportedly 20k units were sold, but I read that based on game sales estimations, this might've been actually only 8k in reality. Saturn in fact sold better, which makes sense because at least until late 1996 all retailers carried it. For comparison, Playstation was at 30k units by late 1996, and at 400k units by late 1998. It boomed from 1997 onward.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

In Benelux the biggest toy stores didn't (mainly Intertoys and Bart Smit), which were the most significant outlets for consoles back then, they had the widest reach with over 500 stores combined. After the Saturn debacle and uncertainty about the DC distribution they decided not to carry it. Those stores were stacked with Playstation and Nintendo.

I believe only dedicated gameshops carried it, as well as Dixons. So it basically never stood a chance over here.

I think places like HMV, Curry’s, Comet and Argos sold them too…

 

[Dr.D00p]

If for no other reason the Dreamcast deserves legendary status in PAL land for at least being the first console to recognise the 60Hz, full screen display option after the squashed borders, 50Hz hellscape that us Eurotrash had to endure in the 16bit era.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

If for no other reason the Dreamcast deserves legendary status in PAL land for at least being the first console to recognise the 60Hz, full screen display option after the squashed borders, 50Hz hellscape that us Eurotrash had to endure in the 16bit era.

16-bit? We had to endure it for the entirety of the PS2's lifecycle. The "best console of all time" was a disgrace in its Euro incarnation. Every game was so slow. Everyone who could either bought a NTSC model and had to import every game, or they modded their PAL model.

To this day, few games managed to make the same impression as Soul Calibur on me. And I bought my Dreamcast used in mid 2002, when the console was already discontinued. Those textures just popped, maybe only the OG Xbox could pop the same way. PS2 and GC surely didn't. I can still see in my mind the floors of the arenas in SC. The game looked unreal.

 

[Dr.D00p]

16-bit? We had to endure it for the entirety of the PS2's lifecycle. The "best console of all time" was a disgrace in its Euro incarnation. Every game was so slow. Everyone who could either bought a NTSC model and had to import every game, or they modded their PAL model.

To this day, few games managed to make the same impression as Soul Calibur on me. And I bought my Dreamcast used in mid 2002, when the console was already discontinued. Those textures just popped, maybe only the OG Xbox could pop the same way. PS2 and GC surely didn't. I can still see in my mind the floors of the arenas in SC. The game looked unreal.

Never had a PS2, so I wouldn't know. My weapons of choice were the Dreamcast and a imported NTSC original XBOX for the 2000 to 2006 era, so 60Hz gaming was always how I played then.

 

[Segaswirl]

16-bit? We had to endure it for the entirety of the PS2's lifecycle. The "best console of all time" was a disgrace in its Euro incarnation. Every game was so slow. Everyone who could either bought a NTSC model and had to import every game, or they modded their PAL model.

To this day, few games managed to make the same impression as Soul Calibur on me. And I bought my Dreamcast used in mid 2002, when the console was already discontinued. Those textures just popped, maybe only the OG Xbox could pop the same way. PS2 and GC surely didn't. I can still see in my mind the floors of the arenas in SC. The game looked unreal.

This is pretty much how I felt when I picked up my PS2 about 2 years after I got my Dreamcast. 50hz and image quality was muddy and mostly terrible. It was my least played console of that generation for that reason. Worst place to play pretty much everything apart from weird exceptions like MGS2 and Hot Pursuit 2.

 

[Shin-Ra]

Rez and Klonoa 2 which I think were on the same OPS2M demo disk were the first two standout 60Hz PAL PS2 games. Shenmue II PAL released around the same time.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Some more UK TV coverage…

 

[RetroGamingUK]

So how would you guys rank and rate the launch window games? For me…

1) Soul Calibur - 10
2) Power Stone - 9
3) Virtua Fighter 3tb - 9
4) Sonic Adventure - 8
5) Sega Rally 2 - 8
6) Hydro Thunder - 8
7) F1 World Grand Prix - 8
8) House of the Dead 2 - 8
9) TrickStyle - 7
10) Toy Commander - 7
11) Dynamite Cop - 7
12) UEFA Striker - 7
13) Ready 2 Rumble - 7
14) Sega Bass Fishing - 6

I’d give the rest 5 or below, lots of crap

 

[SkylineRKR]

16-bit? We had to endure it for the entirety of the PS2's lifecycle. The "best console of all time" was a disgrace in its Euro incarnation. Every game was so slow. Everyone who could either bought a NTSC model and had to import every game, or they modded their PAL model.

To this day, few games managed to make the same impression as Soul Calibur on me. And I bought my Dreamcast used in mid 2002, when the console was already discontinued. Those textures just popped, maybe only the OG Xbox could pop the same way. PS2 and GC surely didn't. I can still see in my mind the floors of the arenas in SC. The game looked unreal.

PS2 had some 60hz games, like Namco's later games such as T4, T5 and SC2. And the Sega published games ware 60hz too. But it was worse than on DC and especially Square Enix didn't bother with it.

MS actually did it best from system level, though not all games would end up running 60. But the bulk of them did.

On Dreamcast you could very easily snatch a codebreaker iso, and force every game in 60hz.

 

[Shin-Ra]

I only remember these launch window games from your list:

Virtua Fighter 3tb
Sega Rally 2
Sonic Adventure
TrickStyle
Toy Commander
Ready 2 Rumble
Sega Bass Fishing

R2R boxing being the game played most on demo stations in Game/Virgin Megastore for some reason. Soul Calibur in my memory at least felt like a +1 year after launch game. It’s funny rewatching the pre launch VHS again seeing HotD2 and Power Stone in there because they weren’t on my radar at all until they released.

PS2 had some 60hz games, like Namco's later games such as T4, T5 and SC2. And the Sega published games ware 60hz too. But it was worse than on DC and especially Square Enix didn't bother with it.

MS actually did it best from system level, though not all games would end up running 60. But the bulk of them did.

Problem with it being system-level on Xbox was the (widely considered) best game, Halo CE had borked PAL 60 frame pacing causing a persistent stutter so you had to dig into the options between Halo and any other game.

 

[Fermbiz]

The swirls... so beautiful...

 

[Bloobs]

Always wanted to buy one but never did. We didn't own any Sega console back in the day.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Reminder that Sega spent £12m sponsoring Arsenal only for them to drop out of the Champions League group stage that season

Meanwhile PlayStation had their logo plastered all over the tournament’s advertising hoardings and TV sponsorship

And Dreamcast didn’t get a single good footie game either

 

[Mahnmut]

I remember skipping class one day to go buy one. Good memories!

To this day, the opening of Shenmue—when you leave the dojo and explore the streets—is still one of my top 5 gaming moments. It was mind-blowing!

 

[SweetTooth]

PS2 had some 60hz games, like Namco's later games such as T4, T5 and SC2. And the Sega published games ware 60hz too. But it was worse than on DC and especially Square Enix didn't bother with it.

MS actually did it best from system level, though not all games would end up running 60. But the bulk of them did.

On Dreamcast you could very easily snatch a codebreaker iso, and force every game in 60hz.

I didn't want to chime in here..but noticed lots of misinformation regading PS2 .. 60% of entire PS2 library was running at 60fps I don't know what's with this misinformation crusade here.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Reminder that Sega spent £12m sponsoring Arsenal only for them to drop out of the Champions League group stage that season

Meanwhile PlayStation had their logo plastered all over the tournament’s advertising hoardings and TV sponsorship

And Dreamcast didn’t get a single good footie game either

Yeah they squandered their euro budget to sponsor some football clubs. And they didn't even have licensed football games afaik. Dreamcast European promotion was really bad.

We can say a lot of shit about Bernie, but he prepped a good launch in the US.

I didn't want to chime in here..but noticed lots of misinformation regading PS2 .. 60% of entire PS2 library was running at 60fps I don't know what's with this misinformation crusade here.

Well for starters you confuse 60fps with 60hz.

 

[onnextflix5]

All I remember is that controller, is was made for robots not for us humans ,

 

[Shin-Ra]

I haven’t played Shenmue 1 since it released but the sound of the Hazuki garden’s Shishi-odoshi is permanently ingrained in my mind with the start of the music from that area and the black loading screens with place, date and time.

 

[Syphon Filter]

that's weird ,why is the logo blue?

 

[Calverz]

I got into dreamcast a couple of months before the big announcement they were ending production etc. I want to say I got it from my parents for doing well in my prelims at the time. January 2001 maybe? I’m sure they got a bundle from Currys that was the console, Daytona usa, uefa dream soccer, sega gt and chu chu rocket plus another controller for £130. I think. Very quickly I picked up all the other great games obviosuly. It felt like there was so much to choose from in a short space of time. And the online play was amazing. Great memories of quake 3 arena and phantasy star online. But other stuff like shenmue and then shenmue 2 which unfortunately didn’t have the English dub I had become accustomed to. (At least we got it in Europe).

Overall the Dreamcast is probably my favourite console of all time. Such a short lifespan but so many great games. Sega just went all out. Eventually I did get a ps2 like most people. And although it undoubtedly had amazing games, it just never recaptured that feeling of dreamcast. Something that just felt so new and futuristic. There was nothing like being up all night, playing quake 3 arena and pso with complete strangers. And downloading the dlc karts for sonic adventure 2 lol

 

[cireza]

Got the console at Christmas right after launch with Soul Calibur. Biggest slap I ever took in my entire life. I simply couldn't believe what I was seeing/playing. Never happened again. This console was absolutely unreal. Dead or Alive 2, Resident Evil Code Veronica and Shenmue (to name a few) looked totally out of this world. Many other games would look okay, not necessarily great, but would always play super smoothly and have a superb picture. Games like Sonic Adventure, Power Stone or Project Justice for example.

Then when PS2 was released and people were playing FFX in 50Hz with the composite cable, it simply looked like shit. Dreamcast had a proper SCART RGB bundled (as usual with SEGA) and supported 60Hz on a lot of games (not Skies of Arcadia though). Phantasy Star Online looked incredible as well, especially the boss fights. FFX was a blurry aliased mess. You could guess the excellent animation work, but it was wasted.

 

[skneogaf]

I got a dreamcast on launch, I can't remember if it was the Japanese one or the USA version. I assume it was released much earlier than the UK version.

I had the arcade stick, steering wheel,right guns etc. It was absolutely amazing!

 

[kazuyamishima]

I had the Dreamcast a few years before the PS2, mainly because its fighting game catalogue was huge and with high quality games.

The Marvel vs Capcom 2 port was arcade like, then other games like Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, The House of the Dead 2 and many more.

What great memories I had with the DC.

 

[Physiognomonics]

Soul Calibur and Toy Commander are still highly enjoyable today. I still play them from time to time. 2 best games of the console. I love 100% Toy Commander.

Shenmue was great back then, OST is still king. But the game aged like milk. Similar thing with Sonic Adventure.

At some point I was the best at Soul Calibur. Nobody could beat me.

 

[Shin-Ra]

Someone made a Windows tool for creating VMU animations you downloaded through the DC web browser. I can’t remember if it worked through Sonic Adventure’s seasonal/DLC browser. I badly replicated the 007 gun barrel with a stick man and circles.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

I present to you all the single worst video game of all time



All they had to do was show 20 seconds a Soul Calibur gameplay and replay footage showcasing the stunning graphcis

Sega Europe FFS!!!

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Soul Calibur and Toy Commander are still highly enjoyable today. I still play them from time to time. 2 best games of the console. I love 100% Toy Commander.

Shenmue was great back then, OST is still king. But the game aged like milk. Similar thing with Sonic Adventure.

At some point I was the best at Soul Calibur. Nobody could beat me.

Always makes me wonder what Namco’s plans were with Dreamcast, at the time I was always wondering when the next Tekken, Ridge Racer and Ace Combat would be announced for the system.

Instead we got Mr Driller

Good shout out for Toy Commander there, I loved the demo, especially the Christmas one

 

[Physiognomonics]

Always makes me wonder what Namco’s plans were with Dreamcast, at the time I was always wondering when the next Tekken, Ridge Racer and Ace Combat would be announced for the system.

Instead we got Mr Driller

Good shout out for Toy Commander there, I loved the demo, especially the Christmas one

If you haven't the game just buy and play it. Controls are difficult, yes, but once you'll master them, the game is a joy to play and to discover what you need to do in the varied missions. OST is still great too.

 

[Alan Wake]

Sega announcing they’d scrapped the Dreamcast was quite a depressing day, I’d been following the rumours online for a few months, but it still hit hard.

A few months later I traded my Dreamcast and games for a PS2 along with Gran Turismo 3, SSX and Zone of the Enders (I played that MGS2 demo to death)

BBC News | BUSINESS | Sega scraps the Dreamcast

It was incredibly depressing for me as a young man who had not experienced setbacks in my life yet. It was sort of the worst thing that had happened to me, lol. I grew up as a Sega fanboy and loved the brand and everything about it.

On a more mature note, I do think that the industry became a little bit more dull when Sega left the hardware business. And Sega themselves were never the same again.

 

[clarky]

that's weird ,why is the logo blue?

I believe someone had a very similar orange already trademarked in Europe.

I had a launch JP import model and i could never get used to it either.

 

[StabbyStabStabStabStab]

Ah yes, I remember dashing out from work squeaking in geeky anticipation to grab on day 1, with Sonic Adventure, Trickstyle and Ready2Rumble. This and the OG Xbox were the last machines I actually got excited about grabbing, everything since has been a little whatev’s really.

 

[STARSBarry]

So the Dreamcast resulted in an intresting thing happening in my house. After spending far too much time on Sonic adventure and Shenmu I eventually picked up a game due to recognising the name, Phantasy Star Online.

Now why was this intresting? Well it was before broadband was a thing, so I was using the phone line. No one could call, my parents had to eventually set up times when people could make a phone call to the house because I was on it so much. This eventually lead to them just getting a second phone line installed, so my room had its own phone number just for PSO.

I fucking loved that game, I remember arguing with my parents when they suddenly needed to pay for a subscription as I had bought the V2 disc for the hunters licence when I didn't before.

Spent far too much time on that and later the gamecube version and finally Blue Burst. Out if all the Dreamcast games, PSO was the one i remember the most... also the first time my parents got a phone bill for £95 before realising they needed to get an Internet plan. They where ok for per minute costs for the PC prior, but not for PSO time.

 

[Team Andromeda]

I find it hard to celebrate anything to do with SEGA Europe and the DC.

SEGA Europe was run by a clueless French footy fan, who cared more about wasting all of SEGA's Europe money on sponsoring every football team known to man, whilst not ensuring a quality football game of its own and that's before you move on the muppets running the PR ECT.

SEGA Europe killed any hope of the '8 billion' players going online in Europe by not allowing Pal users to enter their own ISP. You have some of the worst and most fragile game cases ever made, you had a massive advertising campaign on TV without showing any games running and not even the console you're trying to get people to buy, instead, you show people having a haircut and worst of all... Some muppet at SEGA Europe thought the best way to show off Soul Calibur (what was the best looking game around at the time) on prime time TV, not by showing the game being played, but rather by showing someone sending an e-mail.

I mean you couldn't make it up

 

[StabbyStabStabStabStab]

So the Dreamcast resulted in an intresting thing happening in my house. After spending far too much time on Sonic adventure and Shenmu I eventually picked up a game due to recognising the name, Phantasy Star Online.

Now why was this intresting? Well it was before broadband was a thing, so I was using the phone line. No one could call, my parents had to eventually set up times when people could make a phone call to the house because I was on it so much. This eventually lead to them just getting a second phone line installed, so my room had its own phone number just for PSO.

I fucking loved that game, I remember arguing with my parents when they suddenly needed to pay for a subscription as I had bought the V2 disc for the hunters licence when I didn't before.

Spent far too much time on that and later the gamecube version and finally Blue Burst. Out if all the Dreamcast games, PSO was the one i remember the most... also the first time my parents got a phone bill for £95 before realising they needed to get an Internet plan. They where ok for per minute costs for the PC prior, but not for PSO time.

PSO was amazing - absolutely loved it. That and Worms World Party were the biggest online time sponges of that time for sure...