Vintage gaming community.
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at some point "retro" consoles got popular on GameStops website and I invested in a Dreamcast, 3 controllers, and memory cards. it was all under around $80. so god damn worth it since I can just "find" games online for it. I didn't grow up with it but it's definitely been a fun console
You know, I haven't thought about burning CDs for my Dreamcast before. Is it pretty simple these days?
But it didn't fail :)
I still regret selling mine.
This motherfucker right here had ONLINE PLAY. You could spin up Phantasy Star Online: Episode 1 & 2 and actually have other people join your game, drop duplicated items, and destroy your droprate. It was fucken sicc.
"Dreamcast" is probably the single best gaming console name of all time, too.
Retro Sega systems stand out with their cool, mystical/sci-fi sounding names: Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast.
They were unique and felt like they were telling customers that we'd be in awe when using their consoles.
(Master System and Sega CD were pretty boring though)
Most other big systems' names seem so utilitarian and uninspired:
GameCube and Xbox are little boxy devices on your shelf that play games.
The Nintendo Switch can switch between handheld and docked.
All the PlayStations are stations that you play games on.
Yawn
Mega drive would have sounded cool when it came out, though it’s perhaps the most dated sounding name of the bunch.
Why in the hell did Sega not put up any sort of anti pirating safeguards on this thing? Even my buddy who was always talking about how dreamcast was the best system, had a stack of all the Dreamcast games copied, because the Dreamcast would read and play copied games.
It was killed by its own fan base and lack of anti pirating
Oh but it did, first the GD-ROM that had 1GB and the only way to get the games into a CD was to cut the assets making it a worse experience and... playing recorded CD-ROMs on a Dreamcast was a very efficient way to destroy its drive.
I don't think any consoles had decent anti piracy back then. Dreamcast had some, but got beaten. They were routinely being chipped for piracy up to the Xbox 360 era. I remember that well because people at work laughed at me for buying games, and then MS banned them all on one day and they had to buy new ones to be able to carry on playing online.
It was killed by the PS2. That thing was a juggernaut, and Sega just couldn't compete. Xbox and Gamecube hadn't even launched before Sega threw the towel in. They just couldn't get any traction and got out of the console market before they went bankrupt, selling at ever more unsustainable losses.
They're still around, so it was probably the right decision in hindsight.
The PS2, bad third-party relationships, and a limp Western market strategy. Even with competent management it's quite possible, even likely it still would have been the last console Sega produced, but it could have gone a full generation with better support.
I remember original Xbox being the first console that banned people for modding their console. I and everyone I knew had modded PS1 and PS2.
Bernie Stolar was also to blame because he was the reason a majority of the Dreamcast library was not localized outside of Japan
staying up way too late every night playing pso though
Too soon...
What makes me happy though is the Dreamcast is still going strong today with fan translations, indie games (and more) and online play.
Also PS Vita. It was better than anyone (even Sony) realized. And the few who DID like it obsessed with the memory cards and the actual insanely amazing console it is was forgotten and overlooked.
I still play mine today. And yes there are tons of great games on it beyond Persona, even though you wouldn't know it among the usual Vita fans.
I never gave the vita a chance but I miss my modded psp
I had buttons get stuck on mine that I tried to fix but couldn't.
That damn thing had some of the most fun games ever.
It was the best.
And all because the PS2 could play DVDs and the Dreamcast couldn't. Fucking DVDs. As ridiculous as that sounds today, people went apeshit over DVD playback capabilities back in the early 2000s.
But to be fair I also think Sega was their own worst enemy. In the 90s alone they released the Sega CD, 32X, the Saturn and the Dreamcast. Not to mention the Genesis 3 and CDX as well. If they would have slowed their roll and stopped cannibalizing their own sales, they might have done alright. The addon idea could have worked out better if done right. Hindsight is 20/20, so if they had a crystal ball they should have done something like this, and they'd still be making consoles today:
Sega was their own worst enemy
Arguably they still are today. Can't stop being a fan though!
My Friend: Did you hear? Sega cancelled the Dreamcast.
Me: ...
Me: ... (still waiting for the punchline)
Huh, never thought I'd see a reference to Don McLean in the wild that wasn't American Pie.
I thought it was a NOFX song for years
Wii U too. Two consoles with a whole extra screen on your controller. Brilliant and cool features. Misunderstood or poorly timed?
Misunderstood for sure, I think. The Wii U suffered from what was probably the worst marketing campaign of any game console, ever. I didn't even know it was a new console and not yet-another-Wii-addon until halfway through it's life cycle and I think that was a pretty common misunderstanding.
The way I felt about the Wii U was probably similar to how adults felt about the Dreamcast back then.
It seemed really cool, but it didn't feel worth the money while there were other great consoles already. I was still getting a ton of use out of my original Wii.
I had an entire binder of pirated Dreamcast games back when this came out. I can't remember if I actually owned a genuine copy of a game (it was too easy to run pirated game discs).
I have good memories of the console though.
So did many! It was so easy!
Haha I also had a giant binder full of pirated games. The other thing I remember about it was how loud it was reading the discs
We all had binders of pirated Dreamcast games...
I think I'm starting to see why it died.
*cries softly into Seaman microphone