Dreamcast celebration!

[Bordersdown Twitter]

That noisy drive.
The beating from Sony.
Those BEEPING Visual Memory Unit thingies!

As the Dreamcast is 17 today, let's talk about the time we've shared with Sega's final box of tricks!

[J0e Musashi]

I had CEX Rathbone stay open past 7pm so I could buy the first one they got in. They had everything barring a VMS, but luckily I already had the Godzilla one which had released four months prior. I stayed up all night playing Virtua Fighter 3 TB.

[Baseley09]

Queued up midnight in game, when I took my shiny new Dreamcast off the counter the bag split and the box hit the floor....from that point I knew we were doomed.

Some of my greatest gaming days though likes on PSO, Sonic Adventure, Shenmue 2. Doesnt hold too much interest for me now with most titles being on GC & Xbox etc.

[QualityChimp]

The amazing [MENTION=7818]Malc[/MENTION] gave me his Dreamcast (it pays to be Blue, chums!) just over a year ago, so I've got to play the system without any rose-tinted nostalgia. Nothing wrong with that, but just a different perspective!

I played some games at RetroRevival and started to think about getting one. I particularly loved the shooters. I spent a good chunk of time on Zero Gunner 2. It was easy to play, not too punishing and each level had some boss that transformed to a robot death machine. I've played a couple of others like Trizeal, which are great fun too.

However, I find the lack of a second analogue stick hampers games like Shenmue and Deadly Skies, where I'm constantly wanting to adjust the camera.

Great system though, and especially brilliant for shmups.

[Yakumo]

Bought one day of release in Japan. Can't get cooler than that

[QualityChimp]

I had CEX Rathbone stay open past 7pm so I could buy the first one they got in..

Bought one day of release in Japan. Can't get cooler than that

#JoinTheElite

[Colin]

I went to the midnight launch on Oxford Street for my PAL unit, think it was HMV. One of the best systems I ever owned, and probably the longest I ever held on to a console I bought.

[charlesr]

#JoinTheElite

It was either a DC at launch or an N64 at end of life. I went for the N64 because there were a bunch of cheap games. Big mistake*. That's when I learned about PAL vs NTSC and had to rebuy all of the games from USA and people on here, plus Sin and Punishment. (*not a mistake at all - love those games)

So I got into the DC at the end of life..... Deal in Argos: ?50 brand new including a whole bunch of games like F355, Ecco the Dolphin, Sonic, Virtua Fighter and MDK2.

It was the craziness of the DC that I enjoyed the most. The stupid removable game things in the pads that ran out of batteries so it beeps all the time. Quake III online with mouse and keyboard - I had played a lot of Quake on the PC, but it was cool playing it on the TV. Space Channel 5 - enuf said. Samba Di Amigo with Marracas and sonic sensors on the floor (not Sonic sensors!) Typing of the Dead - seriously what the heck - amazing game. Sega Bass Fishing with the rod!! And the huge raft of incredible shmups - a while back I sold my almost complete collection of DC shmups - what an idiot. DC-X disc that made it region free. Half Life unreleased needing to load new bits every 2 minutes.

[Baseley09]

Heh I played through DC Half Life it was still really good despite some lewd loading.

There's one bit when a hangar door opens and like some army guys start to shoot and charge, it freeze frames to load adding to the terror.

[Asura]

I had CEX Rathbone stay open past 7pm so I could buy the first one they got in. They had everything barring a VMS, but luckily I already had the Godzilla one which had released four months prior. I stayed up all night playing Virtua Fighter 3 TB.

I didn't manage to get a VMU (they were totally sold out). I must've seen the intro to Sonic Adventure 40 times over the few days before I was able to get one. It's unskippable.

[charlesr]

I got a long way through it, but then came back to it a few months later and was totally lost and couldn't figure out where to go or where I had got to.... Never finished it. Might have to have another try.

[nakamura]

The delay of the RGB cable really made launch machines muddy looking. Ugh.

Lots of fun playing Virtua Fighter 3TB though.

[qupe]

Loved my Dreamcast and still do. Brought mine from a defunct Curries and a load of my games from the now defunct MVC.

Played Virtua Tennis 2, MSR and Shenmue the most. Brought most of the Japanese shooters released at the time but had to sell them and over half my collection due to difficult times. Now rebuilding my collection and at 81% Pal set and slowly rebuilding the shumps released, also enjoy playing recent releases like Gunlord, Fruit'Y and have Alice Dreams Tournament via Kickstarter coming next year. Would love the Pier Solar Kickstarter set but the price is way over my budget.

Love the fact the system is still supported and that Volgarr the Viking was ported for free recently too

[replicashooter]

What an excellent console. I have mucho fond memories of this system, both playing and coding.

For its time it was something really quite special and who can forget the amazement of being able to run around FREEly "looking for sailors"? Aside from that it was home to some great arcade ports including probably my favourite version of Street Fighter as it just looked so chunky and accurate with slick response and control. Ikaruga, Mars Matrix, Ooga Booga, that Warner Bros racing one that felt just like Mario Kart 64 as well as a shed load of RPGs.

I think the DC was the last "get the lads round" console where multiplayer was everyone in one room, keeping it all in rotation After that it was more online and yelling at fat americans through your headset and the charm was gone for me.


One thing I've always said though (and here am unaware of the licensing/logistics aspect) but if Sega remade the hardware as a handheld with a 7" IPS screen and released the library via digital downloads they could become a serious contender in the gaming market again as a) it had a fantastic library that the majority of modern gamers know naught of, b) they looked really good c) the aforementioned multiplayer aspects in a local head to head/wifi setting d) because I really, really want it.

I can't see why they don't do this as the R&D costs to make it would be next to nothing relatively speaking, advertising would again be minimal as word of mouth and viral hype would do the trick and once again, I really, really want it.

[charlesr]

Has anyone tried Ghost Blade? Any good?