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Dreamcast Discussion


Zanoh

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Eh, my uncle had a dream cast. But other than that, I was only introduced to the adventure games through the GameCube.

Huh, same (exact) story here. .__.

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The DC was certainly cool thanks to Sega's own output, but aside from that it was basically a port machine. This was nice for fighting game fans, but left the system without much to call its own.

I really dig its analog stick and D-pad. Neither were great for fighters, but just buy an ASCII pad, ya idiot, I'm talking about what they were good for. The base of the dreamcast's analog stick actually protruded out of the face of the controller, and Sega used this to give it a larger maximum angle, allowing for more precise inputs. A surprising amount of why Sonic Adventure is better on the DC can probably be attributed to this. This analog stick also had a round gate, BUT the way it operated allowed them to still give it tactile feedback as to the direction in which you were pushing it. I suspect this has to do with it's unusual form of encoder, based on the interaction of magnets mounted on the stick itself to sensors on the PCB. This presumably allowed them to make the stick be centered by whatever means they wished.

Now the D-pad has something that no other D-pad that I know of has: A little plastic ball bearing right under the center of the D-pad. This prevents it from being pushed straight down but still allows it to rock fluently.

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  • 1 year later...

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Today marks the 14th anniversary of SEGA's final console, the Dreamcast! While the console actually first released on November 27th 1998, I really think the US launch was the biggest of the three regions thanks to SEGA of America throwing tons of support behind the system at launch with numerous launch parties, commercials, and press events. The launch lineup in the US was the biggest of all regions, with a whopping 18 games compared to the UK's 11 and Japan's measly 4. It also helped that SEGA chose the memorable date of 9-9-99. 10-27-98 and 10-14-99 (or 14-10-99?) just don't have the same memorable pizazz. 

 

 

I thought I'd share some online events going on today to celebrate the console. Last week I had the privilege to talk with Francesca Reyes (former writer for the Official Dreamcast Magazine and current editor-in-chief of the Official Xbox Magazine), Simon Cox (former editor-in-chief of the Official Dreamcast Magazine, he also worked on EDGE, GMR, Xbox Nation, 1UP.com, GameQ, and NVision), and Ricardo Torres (former head of CNET Gamecenter and former editor-in-chief of Gamespot).

 

SEGAbits will be celebrating the Dreamcast all month, so check there often for new articles and interviews.

 

It was truly an awesome discussion, and I was shocked to learn that it was the first time Simon and Francesca spoke since the magazine ended. LOTS of amazing stories including Simon butting heads with the president of SEGA, and how the game Rez got its name (Simon named it!).

 

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My good friend The Gagaman is planning a super cool Dreamcast thing later today related to the number 100...

 

Also, my pals at Sonic Retro should be streaming Dreamcast games later today at http://www.twitch.tv/vidyaretro

 

---

 

So happy 14th, SEGA Dreamcast! Know of any Dreamcast related things happening this month? Share them here!

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The Dreamcast didn't sell well because it didn't have a DVD player. Pretty much the main reason.

I personally think that besides the lack of DVD play, the Dreamcast didn't do so well because of the lack of secondary shoulder buttons and a second analog. Kinda weird they went with their controller design after the DS1 was so postively acclaimed.

 

Anyway, Happy Bday Dreamcast. I don't know why, but I own at least 4 of them. Where the other three came from... idk XD. I still find myself whipping out the good 'ol Dreamcast and playing Sonic Shuffle or Powerstone 2 with my friends.

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Well, guess later after a makeup test I may turn mine back on and try and finish what I started yesterday: finishing Jet Grind Radio for the first time XD. also been playing a lot of episode one podracing lately

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I remember getting the Dreamcast. Me and my brother saved for a while. we couldn't get at launch, though, and we were stuck with the demo disc for a while. Iremember thinking how cool it was that the grass stuck to the wheels in Flag to Flag. I remember playing NFL 2k with my dad, and saying(Or wanting to say) "It's so realistic, you can see their breaths", but it sounded like "It's so realistic you can see their breasts". We mocked him for ages for that. I remember being so astounded by Sea Man, since he actually seemed to understand you, unlike a certain yellow mouse. I remember when my uncle got the console at launch and wanted to only buy Trick Style, but I convinced him to get Sonic Adventure. I was in a day camp at the time, since both my parents worked and I would go to his place afterwards and would always play Sonic.

 

I loved the Dreamcast. I was so sad to see it go so early.

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I still have mine and remember actually getting the official Dreamcast magazine before getting the console on my birthday in the year 2000, came with those lovely demo discs. The last one promised a review of Sonic Adventure 2 and it never came out...

 

Out of the games that I have; I really enjoyed Metropolis Street Racer, Daytona USA 2001, Sonic Adventure [at the time], Sega Rally 2, Soul Calibur, Confidental Mission [spy themed light gun shooter], Looney Tunes Space Race, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Tennis, Chu Chu Rocket and even 18 Wheeler. For the arcade games, it was simple to play and looked nice but difficult to master. Sonic Adventure had the atmosphere, same thing to Metropolis Street Racer. Even though Project Gotham Racing has the same great gameplay and an extra city, I found the atmosphere to be better on MSR from the realistic day and night cycles of the cities to the music. There's only a few soundtracks that I like on PGR (Title Screen theme, Galaxy Bounce) but like most on MSR. Even though I tried and played a quite a bit of it, couldn't really get into Shenmue even though it was a really good game however it was an excuse to play Hang-On and Space Harrier both that I enjoyed and I don't know what possessed me getting Sega Bass Fishing with a 3rd party fishing rod. Sadly I didn't managed to get some of the games even though I enjoyed the demos or that it died before releasing in Europe, however in the case of Jet Set Radio at least I have the PSN port of it.

 

What I really liked about the Dreamcast was the creativity of the developers, Sega really tried very hard to have a different feeling of each game from arcade hits thanks to the NAOMI arcade system like Sega has always done to beating EA at their own game with sports games to experimental ideas such as Jet Set Radio, Samba de Amigo and Rez with a AAA big budget game [shenmue] and online experiences along the way. It even had some PC ports of famous games such as Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 Arena, GTA 2 and Half Life (if it was released) that felt closer compared to other console ports at the time.

 

I think in some ways the Dreamcast was far ahead of its time due to having online multiplayer and memory card based DLC [due to no hard drive] but where I come from, you would be lucky to afford the Internet and the fees back then just for dial up so I never got to experience Dreamarena. Besides many multiplayer games either had the online modes removed such as Daytona USA 2001 or just weren't released here. It took to the 360 before online multiplayer on a console is common even though the original Xbox did try very hard. The VMU is sort of like the Wii U Gamepad today, after all both have their battery problems and in the case of the VMU, it was hard getting the CR2032 batteries back then (I had to go to Tandy to get one) unlike now. To this day, I still call them batteries the Dreamcast batteries.

 

The only problem with the Dreamcast personally was the unreliablity of the console. My original Dreamcast after loading funny at Windy Valley (it pressed a button on the controller a millisecond before it loaded) in Sonic Adventure had reading problems and stopped reading the discs all together. So we had to send it back, got a refund and ended up getting one from Electronics Boutique [i think it later became Game?] with Rayman 2, that was the only Rayman game that I liked. Now, my current one is on the way out since it couldn't read Crazy Taxi [had to sell that at Computer Exchange, now called CeX] due to that dirty disc error but it wasn't scratched. The weirdest thing was that no copies were ever played on it, just retail discs. I also found the controller to be a bit sharp on the edges compared to most console controllers but that is a minor problem.

 

It was a shame that it died before it had a chance to get competitive with the PS2, it could have seen it lasting up to the Gamecube/Xbox if the latter was still being made since it was inspired by the Dreamcast just with a hard drive and DVD capabilities. From what I remember, the PS2 wasn't an instant success gaming wise, it took to GTA 3 and Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec before taking off like it did. I would have loved to play a finished version of Propeller Arena or Colin McRae Rally 2.0, maybe even future games that were released elsewhere later on.

 

Personally I blame EA for not supporting the system since they are a large 3rd party publisher and by having no EA meant less choice especialyl when it came to certain titles. Remembering every month on the Dreamcast magazine, people were begging for FIFA 2000/2001 since what Sega brought out weren't to people's cups of tea in terms of football games and Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven was Japan only at the time. A similar fate to the Wii U at the moment with lack of football games. Piracy didn't help the system when people had large scale CD copiers selling copies in car boot sales but that was a smaller problem like the lack of DVD drive since people had chipped PS1 consoles and that console was popular. Probably better marketing and more cashflow would have helped too.

 

Basically simply put, I loved the Dreamcast for the games but found the console a bit unreliable.

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  • 2 years later...

I don't know if there was already a Dreamcast console topic already made in the past, but I thought I'd make another and start fresh.

In 2014, I finally amassed enough money to buy a Sega Dreamcast. Being a fan of older video games, especially from the 6th generation (nostalgia woo), it made me want to get Sega's last ditch effort to win back the video game market. When it finally arrived in the mail one day, I had the weird opportunity to find that the console's internal clock battery was dead, AND the language was set to Spanish, of all things. But the console still worked (and works to this day). I will say that I truly enjoy my Dreamcast, especially now that I have Sonic Adventure 2. I just thought I'd make a discussion about how we first got introduced to the console and what our favorite games on the system was.

To keep this as short as possible, my favorites are Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Crazy Taxi, and Space Channel 5.

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I remember being able to play Chao Adventure and stuff on the VMU, that was awesome.

I love the Dreamcast because it's probably the console I played the most as a kid until I got enough money to buy a Gamecube. (Which I only actually did so I could get the extra Chao features from SA2B) Granted, everything we owned except Sonic Adventure and House of the Dead was a burned copy my uncle made for us but I didn't know that at the time, haha. I have some pretty cool memories of being able to play an entire library of Gameboy Colour and SNES games on the thing.

I've got 3 of them (We got the other two from relatives) and they all work pretty good, even if they're getting a bit yellow now.

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I really need some tips to connect my DC to a wifi connection.  Adding to this, I don't have a VMU, but I do have a memory card.  Thankfully that doesn't squeal when you turn on the console.

 

And the reason for me wanting to connect to the internet via DC is because of the DLC for the only two games I have, which are the two Sonic Adventure titles.  I mean it can get really annoying having to listen to a monotonous female voice saying the menu choices.  I mean with the character themes, then it's as if the characters are interacting with the menu (and that includes the "unused" Shadow, Secretary, Amy, Omochao, and Maria themes).

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My brother introduced me to the Dreamcast. When I got my own DC it eventually couldn't read discs anymore so I searched throughout the internet to find how to fix it and  I did find something. So I took the shell off the DC and fixed it. Still running good today. Have pretty good memories playing Dead or Alive 2, Power Stone, SA, SA2 and other games. When it came to DOA2 it just blew my mind at the time. I also really enjoyed the Chao game on VMU.

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The Dreamcast, to me, seemed like an amazing advancement of console performance at the time. In a time where everyone was used to seeing the super blocky PS1/Saturn models and extremely blurry N64 textures, the games on the Dreamcast were a sight to see. I’ll never forget seeing Sonic Adventure for the first time; I was completely blown away.

So yeah, I pre-ordered the Dreamcast as soon as I could, and was there to pick up the system with Sonic Adventure on launch day, 9/9/99. I even got a cool orange Dreamcast shirt for pre-ordering.

The VMU’s were also a great and unique idea that I’ve never seen with any other console. Being able to use it as a memory card and also take it with you and play mini-games was just awesome.

In all honesty, I don’t play my Dreamcast a whole lot these days, as many of my favorite games to play on the system (Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Jet Set Radio, Marvel Vs. Capcom, etc.) have been ported over to other consoles/Steam, with those versions being my go-to ones out of convenience. The Dreamcast will always hold a special place in my heart though (just like the Genesis and Saturn), and I had some great memories with it over the years.

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The Dreamcast was probably the first console I remember playing a lot - I was about 6 or 7 when we had our PS1 and Saturn, let alone the Megadrive, But being 10 and seeing the intro to Sonic Adventure? Hell yeah. The DX version always looked weird to me, I love that little blocky Adventure style Sonic. 

Have recently got a gaming PC with NullDC running on it, and I've really come to appreciate how dope the console was. Have recently been going through Shenmue and it's incredible - Uprezzed, the game looks fantastic, and it's such a great experience. Do we have a Shenmue thread? I have deep thoughts about those games....

Not to mention Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi's, Power Stone,  Space Channel 5.... SEGA really threw a huge bunch of great software at the thing, and I unreservedly love it. All it needed was a Nights game and it'd be perfect.

 

38 minutes ago, Tailikku said:

I really need some tips to connect my DC to a wifi connection.  Adding to this, I don't have a VMU, but I do have a memory card.  Thankfully that doesn't squeal when you turn on the console.

 

And the reason for me wanting to connect to the internet via DC is because of the DLC for the only two games I have, which are the two Sonic Adventure titles.  I mean it can get really annoying having to listen to a monotonous female voice saying the menu choices.  I mean with the character themes, then it's as if the characters are interacting with the menu (and that includes the "unused" Shadow, Secretary, Amy, Omochao, and Maria themes).

The Dreamcast needs a wired connection via ethernet cable, as WIFI was science fiction back in 1998 - you'd have to plug it into your router iirc.

But, I imagine those servers have been long shut down, so even if you could get online you couldn't grab the DLC*. I found this http://www.dcdlc.com/downloads.html but have no idea how to get that into the VMU. 

 

*God, was the Dreamcast the first home console with DLC? What hast thou wrought, SEGA?

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Oh goodie a Dreamcast topic. I'm not gonna be too long with my post hahahaha.

The first time I heard of this console was relatively late, like four to five years after its discontinuation late. That's when I was opening myself to the Internet and having heard of SEGA beforehand thanks to games like Sonic Heroes, Sonic Advance series, Jet Set Radio Future and Outrun Coast2Coast I began to be a fan of the company's software. Then around 2007 I read up about their console history. The one console that I grew attached to out their linage was the Dreamcast, and I don't know why specifically but maybe it was because it was around during the time I first got into the video game scene with the N64s and Playstations. Funny though I never once heard of SEGA at that time, so I didn't ask my parents to give me one. 

Anyway, the more I found out about this console the more I wanted to own one. It was quite the system ahead of its time back then with its features such as robust (again for the time) internet capabilities, its library of first party titles, accessories, etc. So it's been somewhat of a goal for me to own one. 

It wouldn't be until last year I finally managed to buy one from a retro game store. Seriously I would rank it as being one of the greatest video game consoles of all time, for what it could do in the short lifespan it had. It was SEGA's swan song in the home console market and it was quite the way to go out. Shame numerous issue plagued its life, from the GD ROM to the lack of DVD capability to even stemming from even the Saturn days but oh well. I still appreciate it for what it is. 

Going back to the software, I heard from a a few sites that this was where SEGA's software creativity was at its apex and I'm inclined to agree. From the cinamatic experience of Shemue, to the vibrant quirkiness of Jet Set Radio, to the cult classics Space Channel 5 and Crazy Taxi, to the solid SEGA Sports titles to of course the Sonic Adventure series that thing had a little bit of something for anyone who's a SEGA fan or really into video games. And yes the 9/9/99 advertisement for the North American launch is something I wish I could have really been apart of to be hyped about. 

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