Gaming in the Dreamcast Era



So, I figured i would take a break from my Ultimate Warrior like blogs to discuss a very under rated system. Atleast in my eyes. I had the pleasure of being locked in my basement for 4 hours...drunk, due to my roommate locking the basement door because he thought it would be funny. I had no cell phone to call my girlfriend to come down from the bedroom and, I didnt wan't to kick my door in. Being locked in a basement would usually mean being the worst thing to ever happen, But then again, My basement serves its purpose as my game room where i have a pool table and an old school floor model TV set up. WHats on top of that TV you ask? A Sega Dreamcast. People can hate on the Dreamcast all they wan't, But lets face it. Dreamcast had the best marketing campign...9.9.99. Everyone was swipt up in Dreamcast mania. The Dreamcast's launch was so successful, that most stores sold out and couldnt restock for a couple weeks, Hell, they sold out of preorders. But, like with every other great console's launch, flaws are always bound to come and make you wan't to throw that noisey white box out of you're window or even make you wan't to punch a baby.

Some launch games like Sonic Adventure and Blue Stinger wouldn't load on the Dreamcast even after multiple tries. I remember trying to load Sonic Adventure up three times and it finally loaded after the 4th restart. House of the Dead 2 didnt come with a Light gun, You had to pay extra for it. The VMU's were pointless...But besides those flaws and unecessary gimmicky things, The Dreamcast was probably the most under rated system. It helped push online console gaming to becoming closer to a reality, and it was also one of the first consoles for homebrew content like DreamSNES, MAMEcast (As i like to call it) and Segacast (Genisis Emulator with over a 1,000 games on it). It was also an Importers "Dream", with an easy to creat boot disc, You could play the japenese version of Shenmue before it hit the streets just by simply doing a disc swap.


Dreamcast was also the Undisputed Champion when it came to fighitng games. WIth games like Marvel vs Capcom and Marvel vs Capcom 2, along with Street Fighter 3 Third Strike and the Power Stone series, plenty of bloodshed and mayhem was to be had by all. Today, the Dreamcast controller looks like an uncomfortable lunky peice of crap, But if you ask anyone whos played a Dreamcast what there favorite game was, You will most likely hear Marvel vs Capcom 2. I thought the D-Pad was perfect for pulling off Hadoukens and Syorukens. Another great multiplayer game was Spawn in the Demons Hand, with over 37 McFarlen creations to choose from, It would never get old chopping each others heads off or maiming Spawns former self. The only thing Dreamcast didnt have was Final Fantasy 8, which was released a week later...which I of course went out and brought. But besides that. The Dreamcast was the ****. The Dreamcast was also apart of Resident Evil history by being the only system to have a new Resident Evil game released on its console. Resident Evil Code Veronica was ported over to the PS2 and Gamecube i believe a year or two later.


Before there was WoW, there was Phantasy Star Online, Atleast, that was the first MMORPG i've played before becoming a level 62 rouge *points and smiles while making a clicking sound at reader* Who could forget clocking in those long hours on Phantasy Star Online, or dreading being PKed by someone and getting you're equipment stolen? I don't. Hell, It was like the old west during those servers. Granted, Sega did show that by Phantasy Star Onlines success that maybe sometime down the road, Console gaming Online could be a possibility. Look at Xbox Live, thats the main selling point of the 360. I look at it that before Microsoft got fully into this Console War, that they first thought about Online Play and the Dreamcast came up in somebody's mind. THey just added more to that idea, and made it what Sega was trying to accomplish when it came to the online aspect.

Sadly, After a year, The Dreamcast after making around 10 million dollars, began to slowly die. Which sucked, Because around that time, a wrestling promotion in my home town of Philadelphia by the name of ECW was dying. Then, in March of 2001, the Dreamcast was offically dead. Most unreleased games were ether cancelled (Shenmue 2 was only released in Japan, but an English version was made for the X-Box) or, they found new homes on the PS2 and Gamecube. After only three years, The Little White Noisey Box with the Orange nose, went up to the Trade in Bin in the Sky. But, sometimes certain things develope a cult following. Independent game companies still dish out Dreamcast games...but you would have to live in Japan to get those. SOme games were still being made there as late as of 2009. The Phantasy Star Online serves ran, until they all were finally shut down in 2006. Even though Sega produces crappy games and Sonic Team no longers has their former glory, The Dreamcast will always be highly regaurded as Too Ahead of its Time, but...It showed that's usually a good thing.

After spending some time playing such oldschool ****cs as Marvel vs Capcom 1 and a Japenese version of Fire Pro Wrestling D, It made me reliase how old I am (23) and how entertained I was and still am with the Dreamcast and Sega Genesis. So whenever you log onto Gears of War 2 or sneak up and Break someones neck and teabag them in Metal Gear Online, please. Think of the Dreamcast