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Dreamcast

DCX

DCX
Well it's quite easy to own all the games i do. I just went nuts. I play games to play them and i don't only stick to AAA-AA titles, i give all games a chance not to mention an ex wife who also enjoyed gaming, so she had her own titles that she picked up like EGG, Seventh Cross ( which sucked ass, good concept, but shitty...yet she liked it ) Super Magnetic Neo, Bust a Move 4 and just a whole bunch of games that she liked.
I do have some stinkers like Soul Fighter, Fighting Force 2, Roadsters...etc. I just enjoyed playing Dreamcast games and i guess i just was collecting towards the end. Hey what did you guys think of Blue Stinger? First impressions?

DCX
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
DCX said:
Well it's quite easy to own all the games i do. I just went nuts. I play games to play them and i don't only stick to AAA-AA titles, i give all games a chance not to mention an ex wife who also enjoyed gaming, so she had her own titles that she picked up like EGG, Seventh Cross ( which sucked ass, good concept, but shitty...yet she liked it ) Super Magnetic Neo, Bust a Move 4 and just a whole bunch of games that she liked.
I do have some stinkers like Soul Fighter, Fighting Force 2, Roadsters...etc. I just enjoyed playing Dreamcast games and i guess i just was collecting towards the end. Hey what did you guys think of Blue Stinger? First impressions?

DCX

Heh, I actually have EGG and Super Magnetic Niu Niu and enjoyed them. :p

As for Blue Stinger, that was a game I picked up at launch and enjoyed it. It was nothing incredible, but I had a good time. There are some rather memorable segments as well.

I doubt it has aged well, though, as it wasn't even that impressive back then...
 

DCX

DCX
Blue Stinger hasn't aged well at all, trust me :p I liked Blue Stinger better import without the fixed camera angles. Yeah, 2P Multiplayer died so did 3-4players. Nothing better than playing Red Dog, Cannon Spike, Chu Chu, Samba and Worms!!

DCX
 

btrboyev

Member
I have very fond memories of the dc launch..it was such an incredible day..popping in soul calibur and being floored with the graphics..then sonic...then to going online to the SA homepage to find a really cool community and chao downloads were pretty cool.

I don't know which day was more exciting to me, picking up the saturn in 95 or dc launch..both were amazing. Its a damn shame the general public sucks and never suppported the systems.

My only other memorable launch was the n64, cause mario64 was too fucking awesome.


I wonder if Sonic Adventures homepage is still up...
 
I ordered mine the day after my birthday. It got to my house from Sega on 9-9-99 with Sonic Adventure. I had to walk down the street a few days later to get a VMU to actually save the game.

The first level in Sonic Adventure is still a fond memory. The best one in any 3D Sonic game thus far, in my opinion.

I don't think I fully realized how much I loved that system until I bought Soul Calibur soon after. At the time I wondered how graphics could even get any better lol.
 
I realized I wasn't too attached to my DC games at one point as I mostly had fighting games and then a few other games. I kept a few ( Tech Romancer, Power Stone 2) and sold most of the rest (Skies of Arcadia, Gundam) for Metal Gear Solid 2 and later a GBA.

Later on, I picked up Grandia 2 cheap, which I had skipped since I was playing SoA at the time and enjoyed, even if I wasn't as impressed as when I played part 1. Part 2 did have much better characters, but the story was too trite and the games was even more ridiculously easy than part 1.

Only recently did I pick up the one DC game I still play: Record of Lodoss War, the finest Rogue-like game I have played. While it is only 1 player, it puts all the recent games like Dark Alliance and its clones to shame with its open world and strong story, plus its based in the story of the first anime I ever bought.
 

Subitai

Member
I still like my DC a lot. However, it doesn't hold up with current consoles as well for me as it does for a lot of you.
 

DCX

DCX
I still play it, but there are games that don't hold up...one of them, Beserk...i want that game remade on XBOX.

DCX
 

nitewulf

Member
great system. sorta brought me back into console gaming, cause before that i was heavily into PC games. but before that i owned all the sega systems from SMS to genesis...but around when the saturn came out i just moved to PC gaming. DC made me go back and buy a saturn.
i knew sonic adventure was coming out so i had to have it, and i went around to Toys R Us and stood there watching kids play the demo...sonic running down the side of a skycraper and shattering down through a glass ceiling...pieces of glass flying eveywhere...heh, i knew i had to have it and pre-ordered it then and there.
got the system on 9-9-99, SA was sold out so bought soul calibur and bought Speed Devils, SA and Soul Reaver in the following weeks. it's interesting, at that point i bought the games that werent really "big names" like speed devils...but some of these games were so good!!! i loved speed devils, soul reaver and rayman 2. rayman 2 is still one of the best platformers i ever played.
SOA is one of my fav rpgs of all time, fell in love with the DOA series as well. for me and my friends it was THE multiplayer system, VT, DOA2 and Power Stone were on constant rotation. first time ever my non-gaming friends were actually gaming with me...so that was a huge deal.
and then there were the capcom 2d fighters, oh god...i have been a huge MvsC freak since high school...so it was like a dream having the game at home.
DC is one of the best consoles i ever owned.
 

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
I have never seen anything like the launch of the DC. I think what was special (and what subconsciously sticks in peoples minds even if they don't understand what it is) is that to me the Dreamcast launch seemed to be the ONE system launch in the post-Nintendo industry that was about raw gaming - the games themselves. Sure, everybody and their brother wanted Super Mario 64, and a few other titles at the launch of various consoles. But in all those other cases the hype seemed centered largely on "the amazing new hardware" and purely technical bells and whistles - the typical thing used to sell to the general public instead of substance.

DC "hype" though, was pretty amazing because it came during a time when Sega had been largely discredited thanks to the disaster of the Saturn. Sony had an increasing stranglehold on mindshare, and Nintendo was the only remaining household name in video games with any meaningful recognition and respect. Yet Sega throws this thing out there, and SOMEHOW, by some act of God, they get a hype train rolling for the games themselves in addition to the hardware. People were so impossibly wired to get Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, and NFL2K. Even the Midway launch games like Ready 2 Rumble and Hydro Thunder got some major respect, and Virtua Fighter 3TB was a wow title for people with real gaming experience. Then of course, Capcom started their DC exlusive and arcade title assault, which for the hardcore blew minds on a monthly basis. I think in terms of game quality, the DC had a special range of titles; typically, either a game gels at least pretty well (something like the typical 8.0 title) or is really mediocre and blah, in ye-olde 6.0 range, with the occassional AAA 9.5+ bunker buster. The DC honestly didn't get that many AAA titles. But for some reason, games that would honestly deserve to be rated in the "middling" range based on their on-paper quality and features were frequently just far more engaging to play.

I think this was due in part to the DC getting a lot of creative niche titles. While the teams putting these titles together frequently couldn't manage the raw quality of major developers or the elite talented teams, they still struggled to infuse creativity and charm - something lacking from most of the "only OK" games we see today. The previously-mentioned Record of Lodoss War title was a good example; the nuts and bolts of that game were, technically, not that great. But it had a kind of detail and charm that compensated. Most games post-Dreamcast, to me, seem to have the "not that great" elements and no soul to boot.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
DCX said:
I still play it, but there are games that don't hold up...one of them, Beserk...i want that game remade on XBOX.

DCX

That reminds me, there was a sequel to this game made for PS2 in Japan...

I would REALLY love to see this hit the US, but it has yet to appear. :(
 

shoplifter

Member
DCX said:
Seventh Cross ( which sucked ass, good concept, but shitty...yet she liked it )

Fuck you. Seventh Cross kicked so much ass it wasnt' funny.

bg08.jpg


bg05.jpg


bg04.jpg


Maybe I'm just a little more forgiving though. :)
 

Fusebox

Banned
This thread confuses me.

You mean there were some so-called 'gamers' who actually refused to like the DC system?

Losers, every single one of them.
 
dreamcast was great, I had never been so excited for a console launch :D
I'll never forget the glory days of Chu2 online, best online game ever created! PSO is right up there in second :D
 

Kiriku

SWEDISH PERFECTION
So it's still hardcore to like Dreamcast??

*likes Dreamcast*

Seriously, it was a nice console...I really liked Sonic Adventure, Jet Set Radio, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia II and Virtua Tennis. But that's about it, to be honest.

I feel DC was the console for fighting game (and similar) lovers, a genre which I don't care for particularly much.
 

DCX

DCX
BlackSalad said:
dreamcast was great, I had never been so excited for a console launch :D
I'll never forget the glory days of Chu2 online, best online game ever created! PSO is right up there in second :D
Yeah long nights of Chu2 and Quake...the good old days.

DCX
 

MoxManiac

Member
Ah, Dreamcast...

Marvel vs. Capcom
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Capcom vs. SNK
Capcom vs. SNK 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Street Fighter 3: Double Impact
Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Project Justice
Garou MOTW
King of Fighters 2000/2001/2002
Last Blade 2
Vampire Chronicle
Super Street Fighter 2 X
Super Puzzle Fighter 2 X

Soo good.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Tre said:
I dunno, 99-2000 was a frikkin ridiculous stream of good-to-perfect DC games, MONTHLY.

I remember this very well; it was probably the most into video games I've ever been in my life. The flood of solid releases was ridiculous.
 

Tsubaki

Member
Eh? Dreamcast is dead? News to me. Mine still works quite well.

Plus I just picked up Border Down, Psyvariar 2 and Shikigami no Shiro 2, and Baldr Force EXE is coming out in just a few months. I think I'll have a busy gaming year.
 

madara

Member
Hmm I respect the DC alot as diehard gamer since gemni/atari days, but I dont really care much for it personally. It had alot creative games but it was largely just an arcade machine. Outside of Grandia 2, Skies, and Sonic 1 I barely touched it. I just was not that interested in the library compared to saturn and sega's past systems. I also think they needed more time on controller.
 

Tsubaki

Member
For the record, I agree with a lot of things being said here: Dreamcast is great. The controller needs work. The game industry died with the Dreamcast (actually, perhaps I should say death of Sega itself). And possibly Saturn > Dreamcast. I'm still flipflopping on that one.

I still believe that a big reason that the Dreamcast did not get the good reputation it deserved is the same reason the Saturn never got the fame it deserved - 99% of people don't play Japanese imports.

That's not to say that the DC's US library is bad. In fact, it got its fair share of great Dreamcast games: Sonic Team stuff (Chu Chu is darn brilliant... Sonic games were mostly awesome... PSO can go suck it), Metropolis Street Racer, the major 2D/3D fighters, JSR, Space Channel 5, Sega sports, Typing of the Dead, etc

But by and large, most of my favorite Dreamcast games were left in Japan - Sakura Taisen series (particularly ST3...), Ikaruga, Culdcept II, SC5pt2, Rez... I guess..., etc. True, many of these same games were ported to other systems which may have lessened their impact on the gaming community. But at the same time, they were presumeably ported to other systems simply because the dwindling DC community itself was not enough to sustain the cost of producing them.

Similar things happened with the Saturn as well, as you saw a bunch of flawless 2D fighters w/help from the 4MB RAM cart be ported to the PSX, have stripped down features... sometimes making it an entirely different game (Capcom vs series anyone?), and yet sell so much more than the perfect SS ports could. It's sad to see that quantity overrules quality in these cases, but that's the cost of business I suppose. But it doesn't make the DC anything less than it was - home to one of the finest libraries in all of gaming history.
 

Dave Long

Banned
I really don't think there's been a system launch where I went to the store, bought the system, the games and the peripherals, and was more satisfied than I was with the DC. I mean, that first day I played Soul Calibur, NFL2K, Sonic Adventure... it was just an unbelievable lineup of launch games that truly had something for everyone. I still remember walking out of Best Buy (which had just opened not too long before that in Reading) with all that stuff in my arms. It was a banner day in my personal gaming history.

We were alternately slack-jawed and laughing/praising the system for its incredible graphics AND gameplay. Soul Calibur was just awe inspiring at the time. The high framerate coupled with beautiful character art cemented that as one of my favorite games of all-time. NFL2K was similarly incredible.

To this day I own more Dreamcast games than games for any other system with plans to continue buying them to fill out my collection. I just recently bought Maken X (amazing), Virtua Tennis 2K2 and Get Bass. It's so true that there was simply a AAA game every other week for awhile there. A lot of them just languished on shelves unfortunately (Jet Grind Radio being the most horribly overlooked game ever IMO), but that was part of the coolness of being a DC gamer. You KNEW the games you were playing were some of the best games you could play at that time anywhere and it was like you were in this sooper sekrit club of game buyers that was clued in while the rest of the world went in another direction entirely.

Sega has had flashes of brilliance here and there since (Shinobi... Gungrave... VF4/Evo... Super Monkey Ball...) but a lot of the Dreamcast coolness is gone.

I loved Sega Saturn too and it definitely has a similar sense of coolness about it. There are games on there I'd never give up in a million years and that helped define video game styles for generations to come.
 

Ramirez

Member
And they took their top-notch set of sports games online with 2K1 starting back in 2000.

Something they still haven't perfected after all this time,lmao.
 
Funny... I've been wondering why I haven't been so into video games like I used to as of lately, and the death of the Dreamcast seems to have played a major role. I even wrote about it here in case anyone is interested.
 

Musashi Wins!

FLAWLESS VICTOLY!
FortNinety said:
Funny... I've been wondering why I haven't been so into video games like I used to as of lately, and the death of the Dreamcast seems to have played a major role. I even wrote about it here in case anyone is interested.

That was bittersweet. I don't know what it is...hearing a gushing sentimentality or emotive piece about gaming companies usually makes my bile rise, even or especially with Nintendo who I loved all through my childhood...but mention the Sega Dreamcast and I get all doe-eyed like a fat, lonely fanboy. Whatever series of events conspired to make it my favorite console of all time I'm not sure, but the machine had an emotional impact on me. I'll probably play it until I can't find one that works.
 

belgurdo

Banned
I didn't realize how awesome the system was until I bought another one and got some imports (as well as buying back most of the hard to find stuff I initially sold.)
 

Wulfer

Member
I remember the days of DC. I was working at Software Etc. preparing for the launch. Our DM kept saying continue with your reserves don't stop, we have been cleared for every single reserve and the system will be in their arms on day 1 (Those days those words actually meant something). I remember we had to have lost prevention come in we had so many DC's. It was crazy and fun at the same time. My would be wife and myself put together a sign for the launch it cost us $30 but, we didn't care. We had fun making it. The DM was so, impressed with the sign he took it to other stores to promote the DC. The DM taking the sign to other stores was enough gratification for me at the time. The day before launch we were told to remove all the product at the higher levels and make DC stretch all the way around the store. (It was great all you saw was white and orange over 300 full systems in all.) We had our customers going and we went out to talk to them before the doors opened. I videoed the whole show and that was awsome too. The customers started showing up around 6:00 pm and lining up at the door and before midnight the line went all the way out side the mall and down the sidewalk. People were excited, they were ready for the games. We took pictures that day and when I talk to the staff that was (then) we talk about how cool that day was. We never had another launch like the DC. PS2 launch too few systems and same with the Xbox. No launch has been done right since.

For those that read all above thanks for taking part of one of my wonderful gaming memories.
 
The Dreamcast's heyday was one of the best stretches of gaming I've experienced. There were great new imports coming out all the time, and every new game was an experience not quite like anything I'd seen before. The DC's death certainly wasn't the death-knell of gaming, but I feel that since the flow of major releases for the system stopped, I've had to adopt a more cynical view of gaming, since the sorts of games I loved (and the enthusiasm with which the best DC releases seemed to have been made) have become less and less common. Call it a shakeout, call it hard economics for the good of the shareholders or whichever, but there's a certain cares-to-the-wind enthusiasm embodied in the DC library that is no longer present in the industry, I think.
 
The best thing about DC right now is that, though it's lifetime was short, it has an astonishingly good 'Good game to Bad game ratio'. I'd say roughly 75% of the games released are at least worth playing. And the games are really cheap too! Take a trip to your GameStop and buy a dozen or so DC titles you've never bothered to play before. You'll probably find a gem or two. It'll only cost you about 70 bucks or so, slightly more than the price of 1 brand new game.
 

jobber

Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
I remember the day I got my DC. 2 days after launch. I was floored by Soul Calibur and even the web browser. I only got that feeling when I got the first Nintendo. I got probally over 100 games for DC and still play them once in a while.
 
I've got the Cube,Xbox,and the PS2 all hooked up and set to go. But I'll be damned if my 4 DCs don't get a nice cut in the action as well. Everything from timeless classics like Sonic Adventure,Crazy Taxi,Ecco,Draconus Cult of the wyrm,F355,D2,SpikeOut,House of The Dead2,VF3TB,Sega Rally2,Phantast Star 1 and 2,ShenMue 1,and 2,for those who impoted,Daytona Championship Online,a ton of capcom 2D fighter support,hell the only real thing missing was EA,but thats foranother post.

ven though many of these games eventually wound up on many of your systems,you cannotdeny that this little tiny,white,noisy system did a bang of job,in the weight of the PS2s shadown in that time. It really is sad to see the system gone,it could have been so much more. Ofcourse those of us who choose to enjoy the DC next to our current consoles to this day,well the fun never really stopped. If you take a look at the underground community youre seeing amazing things happening to this day. Metal Slug 1 and 2 running damn near falwlessly when it was once thought absurd,a Genny emulator that is fast approaching perfection,Master System,NES games that play spot on,home brew games like Beats of Rage,then there are the games that never made it out for the system.

The Half Lifes and Propeller Arenas. All very well done,games that never had a chance tio thrive on but thats ok. Hell I was all but ready to run out and buy the MegaMan Anniversary disk for my GameCube,till i saw that someone gave us a Megaman Collection of our own to play on the DC the other day. Ofcourse I'll still buy the GameCube disk,eventually,but there isn't any rush to buy as many games on an impulse,not with the DC around.
 
Btw,what ever happend to the game called The Forever Man? It went under the name Chakon I believe? I never got around to playing the original Geneisis release,but I've been told it was a pretty good game. Anyway its sequel,coming to the DC,was gaining some good hype,then thats when the DC died,bleh.

With any luck,this game will get a release on another system,or maybe this game will surface on download somewhere,someday.
 

Lazy8s

The ghost of Dreamcast past
Yeah, poor Chakan: The Forever Man. The developer, AndNow, went down around the time SEGA could no longer support the "1.5 party" initiatives. AndNow staff still continued to try to get it released in some form, though.

chakan02.jpg
 

wazoo

Member
Sega killed Agartha's No Cliche after DC death and I will never forgive them. 3 years in the making by the creator or Alone in the Dark and nothing :(
 

Seth C

Member
adelgary said:
Dreamcast kinda sucked.

I'm going to have to agree here. At least compared to Sega's other efforts. The Dreamcast ranks third, at best, behind the Saturn and Genesis. I enjoyed both of those consoles a hell of a lot more than Dreamcast. Maybe I just expected too much. Maybe I expected to have a library not comprised of 95% arcade games. I dunno for sure. Maybe I was just burned out from running Dreamcast Extreme.

Anyway, my Saturn and Genesis both get more play than the Dreamcast these days.
 

Anyanka

Member
I was into it mostly just for the arcade games, which were great for the time. The problem is stuff like that, especially fighting games, gets outdated pretty quickly. VF3tb, SC, CvsS and so on were great and got lots of play time for me, but they've all got sequels on other systems now. I really have no desire to go back to them. I fire up the system every now and then to play something like Dynamite Cop or Confedential Mission, but that's about it.
 

etiolate

Banned
The PS2 killing the DC is the most telling moment about modern gaming. A lot of arguments exist over whether there is more licensed crap selling now than many years before, but in the end it was always the software that determined things. That ended with PS2.

Though I never had a DC myself, I played it with friends and have bought quite a few DC ports on GC and PS2.
 

Wulfer

Member
I'm not at home and I can't look. Who made toy commander? My friends and I had awsome 4 player experiences on that game. When Sega started pulling the plug I think that developer went under?.?.? Toy commander was a cool game that's for sure.
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
I firmly believe that you're not a hardcore gamer unless you own a Dreamcast...

While everyone was wanking over spending $500 for the PS2 and its shitty launch library, I was enjoying Jet Grind Radio, Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Bangai-O, Virtua Tennis (this and the sequel were probably some of the most fun I've ever had playing a sports game), Sonic Adventure 2, all these great games...

I'll never forget the day I went to my friend Tony's house, he JUST got a Japanese Dreamcast on the day of its release, he had Soul Calibur, and a mech game... he showed me Soul Calibur (I borrowed Soul Blade from him last year and liked it). My mouth dropped at the time... the graphics were like the best I had EVER seen. I knew I needed to get it that Xmas (and hearing about Skies of Arcadia and a new Phantasy Star were enough to seal the deal for me... shame PSO wasn't what I was expecting, but SOA was great)

Rez, Ikaruga, Shenmue, Bangai-O, Capcom fighters, some of the first sports games online... one of the best systems ever! The way I see it:

Import Saturn > Dreamcast > Genesis > US Saturn > Master System > Sega CD > 32X
 

wazoo

Member
WULFER said:
I'm not at home and I can't look. Who made toy commander? My friends and I had awsome 4 player experiences on that game. When Sega started pulling the plug I think that developer went under?.?.? Toy commander was a cool game that's for sure.

No cliche (of LBA and AITD fame) did Toy commander and as I said above, they were finishing Agartha when Sega killed them.
 

shibbs

Member
How can anyone not love the DC? I still play it.

virtua striker 2
ikaruga
power stone 2
tony hawk
shenmue 2 (still have to beat it)
garou mark of the wolves
 
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