Sega Dreamcast : the pain and the heartbreak

The Sega Dreamcast represents many different things to many different gamers.

To the casual gamer or younger gamer the Dreamcast is some strange anomaly that "the Elder Gamers" speak of.

To the truly hardcore gamer the Dreamcast represents the the last of the true harcore gaming consoles.

The underdog console that COULD and did so many things right in oh so many ways.

It did incredible arcade perfect 2-D fighters like the AAA DC port of Marvel vs. Capcom2 and many other great fighters both 2-D and 3-D and some absolutely killer 2-D shooters ala Ikaruga and Bangi-O both by the traditional 2-D shooter gods Treasure.

It did revolutionize 3-D fighters with the DAY ONE launch day 9/9/99 release of SOUL CALIBUR from the incredible talents at Namco and on one of the greatest 3-D fighters ever conceived since the original Virtua Fighter by Sega.

It did revolutionary and forward thinking games like SHENMUE that were far ahead of their time. Shenmue was one of the first games to successfully implement QTE (quick time events) wich are now used in all kinds of games from various genres from Resident Evil 4 @ 5 to Dead Space to RPGS and FPS.

It did successfully bring online gaming to consoles with its built in 56k modem popular online games like PHANTASY STAR ONLINE and the NFL 2k series.

In fact the blue print of Segas online architecture for the DREAMCAST is what microsoft based its now very popular Xboxlive service on. Sega actually worked rather closely with Microsoft before the launch of the first Xbox.

What the Dreamcast did not do was survive Sonys highly commercialized and mainstream fed media frenzy for the PLAYSTATION 2s launch on October 26, 2000 in the U.S.

Sega was already in the red BEFORE they released the Dreamcast on 9/9/99 and even after having what ws up to that date the MOST SUCCESSFUL HOME CONSOLE LAUNCH IN HISTORY the Dreamcast was still doomed to fail.

Was it the lack of $$$ that Sega was bleeding from its bad investments like the 32X and the misguided but excellent Saturn?

Was it Sonys fault that the casual masses could only relate to the Playstation name and knew not of this strange Dreamcast thing? that some of those "video game freaks" spoke of?

Or....was it just Segas time to fade away as the large conglomerate companies like sony and microsoft took over what once was thought of for decades before as just a "small geek hobby and past time" and cash in on what was quickly becoming a mulitibillion dollar industry that all the major electronics players like Microsoft now had there eye on?

Yea that was probably it.

Its ironic now that the PS2 is my second favorite game system "of all timez" after the SNES now and its even stranger still that I still both play and collect for the Playstation 2 but thats the way of things isnt it?
NOTHING LASTS FOREVER especially in the fast changing and constantly evolving world of videogames.....right?

I had once had a collection of 3 Dreamcast consoles 2 new ones and one I salvaged from a pawnshop that I got in 2004 for $20.00 -since the guy at the pawnshop thought it was a "GENESIS" heh yea you know the type- and I also had a collection of over 60 U.S. DC games inluding all the greats like Soul Calibur and the Power Stone games.

Now I have but just TWO Dreamcast games Shenmue and STREET FIGHTER 3 : Third Strike yep thats it.

I sold everything Dreamcast related over a few years ago for reasons that are my own but believe me they were more related to the pain of a gamer knowing that the Dreamcasts full potential was never fully realized and knowing what was and what could have been for such a great yet highly underrated game console more than anything and that my friends is a feeling that only long time fellow gamers can relate too.

[SilentNegotiator]

LOL, I believe this is an appropriate video to go with the title...
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

"To the truly hardcore gamer the Dreamcast represents the the last of the true gaming consoles"
-
No. Dreamcast represented a console with a few good games, a few innovations that didn't really take off yet, poor business management, and a controller that was outdated as soon as it crossed the "start" line without dual analog sticks.

"Revolutionary" in some ways, sure, but in the extent that it introduced some young concepts to a small fraction of its tiny install base. Ps2 and the xbox would have internet connections and good games regardless of whether the Dreamcast had ever bothered to exist.

[-Alpha]

Dreamcast died because of the three P's

Piracy
PlayStation
Playback

Games were ridiculously easy to pirate, PS2 was so damn hip, and Dreamcast lacked DVD playback capabilities.

[clockworkrazor]

those are some very valid points.

[thebudgetgamer]

i alway thought the dreamcast was too arcadey.

[christheredhead]

i wish the dreamcast was a success and sega was still in the console market. im still a huge fan of the dreamcast and play it almost daily. its a great system with great games. a lot of my all time favorite games have landed on the dreamcast....shenmue series, skies of arcadia, power stone series, jet grind radio, i mean the list goes on and on.

[Nicaragua]

In my opinion the Dreamcast died because Sega had a proven track record of releasing half-baked shit hardware.

Genesis/megadrive was decent
Mega CD was crap
32X was an abomination.
Saturn was a mess.

So by the time they finally got it right with the Dreamcast a lot of people had already been burned by its predecessors and so wrote it off as a bad investment.

People blame Sony for the death of Sega but in my opinion they killed themselves with bad ideas and poor planning. The dreamcast could have been a sucess but Sega had ruined there image and made a lot of people wary of their hardware.

[zerocrossing]

I miss the Dreamcast it had some of my all time favorate games, Shemue, Power stone 1-2, Sonic adventure 1-2, Soul calibur, Rival schools, Skies of arcadia to name a few.

would be great if they revived some of the games that went down with it...

[tiffac008]

I'd like Sega to revive Sakura Taisen (which started on the Saturn) and had 3 sequels on the Dreamcast. :)

[zerocrossing]

I never played Sakura Taisen :/ But it does look interesting :)

Did the franchise come to and end? Or did it get dropped like so many others... ?

[tiffac008]

The franchise ended with Sakura Taisen 5 (PS2, Wii). This was also the only one to be localized.

It took too long for Sega to make the follow up on the franchise by the time it was released the fans has already moved on and they never localized the 1st 4 parts of the series which has always been the hope of the English speaking fans.

They did however made a remake of 1 for the PS2 and ported 1 & 2 to the PSP but again no localization and what's worse by doing so Sega shot themselves in the foot because the players in Japan purchased the remake but not the port making them lose money and discontinuing the other planned remakes.

Sega just loves to mismanage their franchises. I mean Sakura Taisen was so ground breaking in Japan they even have an opera show of the games which has always sold out, it has its own personal shop for a decade or two(close now) and its own personal cafe(still alive).

Sakura Taisen is one of the most successful franchises to cross over to other forms of media and Sega killed it. X_X;;

[tee_bag242]

Nice Blog Clockworkrazor, long live the dreamcast. Ill never part with it. It's an amazing system, sadly there were alot of contributors that saw its early demise. I have attachment I use that allows 480p through VGA. I highly recommend it if you still use the DC.

Sadly there hasn't been a console that releases all the arcade greats since. Heck I'm still waiting for House of the Dead 4 and Daytona 2! And some more Shenmue !!

When I think of all the great games I can help but ask why does so much junk come out on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. Sure some of the stuff is really good but the majority is rubbish. And why no light gun games ?

I'm find it hard to believe many of the timeless arcade titles - time crisis, virtual cop, house of the dead, point blank, zombie revenge, daytona, sega rally, dynamite cop etc aren't ever released through online stores onto current consoles.

[xX-StolenSoul-Xx]

Dreamcast was ok till i got a ps2 and xbox. Dreamcast lacked dual analogs, DVD playback, and the graphics were outdated once ps2 came.