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Sega Dreamcast. The best console ever. Why? See inside!

My God... 23 years ago was the year of Star Wars, The Mummy, Austin Powers, Wild Wild West, Bowfinger, Backstreet Boys, Dre and Em, J-Lo, Y2K hysteria, and of course, our beloved Dreamcast (which was certified Y2K compliant!) seems like an eternity ago, yet still feels recent...

I just gotta, for old time's sake

 

Gamer79

Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
Listen Gaf. I don't need to write a long post about why the DC is the best console ever, but lets take a short sweet trip down memory lane.

  1. Online gaming before anyone else (Yes I know NES had a modem where you can access a limited internet network, but that was for things like ordering pizza etc)
  2. VMU. I think this was incredible. Sonic Adventure where I can download the pets found in game into the VMU, use it as a portable Tamigotchi and then reupload to the game whenever I wanted??? Amazing)
  3. Innovotive and exciting games. Seaman using the mic with the voice of Leonard Nimroy as the pet fish, Headhunter, Skies of Arcadia, Planet Ring, Power Stone, Shenmue, PS0 etc.
  4. Amazing LE consoles and import games, if you were into the import scene like I was the DC/PS2 era was the last great generation for imports.
  5. NGPC to DC link up. Forget hooking up your vita to the your PS4 or GBA to GC. The Dreamcast did it first and it worked amazingly. SNK and Sega a great match.
DONE
I purchased one of these at the midnight launch on 9/9/99. I remember watching the sixth sense first in the theater and then standing in line behind two middle aged dorks arguing about Dragonball Z, The line was a good 25 people deep when I got in line around 11pm. I came home with the Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure, Ready 2 Rumble, and NFL 2k. I remember I was so mad that Crazy Taxi was delayed for launch but had a blast with the launch games. Going from N64 to the Dreamcast back then was a massive jump in graphcis. It was my first online system, web browser, (*ahempron search*) etc. So many memories! It was far ahead of it's time just too bad Sega screwed people before with the 32x, sega cd, saturn, etc. I agree for about a 2 year period the Dreamcast was legendary.
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
vm2-adv4_orig.jpg
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
This is actually a real thing. The Dreamcast Junkyard Facebook group is keeping the DC scene alive with new hardware like the VMU2 and even new games. There's even a new magazine for the DC. Well worth checking out the group.
Yeah, it'll be a little pricey though; somewhere around $100.

But if you're a Dreamcast enthusiast, I think it's worth it.
 
I got a math question for you guys:

Sega Dreamcast games run 60fps games on 640x480p resolution with 16MB of MAIN RAM and 8 MB of VRAM
Sega NAOMI games run 60fps games on 640x480p resolution with 32MB of MAIN RAM and 16MB of VRAM

How many MB/GB of MAIN RAM an MB/GB of VRAM would it take to make Sega Dreamcast/NAOMI games run 60fps on upscaled 3840x2160P resolution?
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
I remember driving home from work around 1am on 9/9/99, and Megadeath’s Insomnia was debuting on the radio. It was so fitting because I was going to have trouble sleeping.

All I could think about was picking up my Dreamcast, along with Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Hydro Thunder, and House of the Dead 2. What a damn launch man. They don’t make them like that anymore.

A couple friends at work were getting them too, so I actually got to do a VMU hookup with a friend. He and his son had everything unlocked in Hydro Thunder, so he hooked me up with a save game transfer.

Such a badass system. I subbed to the magazine and everything. It was so sad when you could see developers starting to treat it like a red headed stepchild.
 
I noticed that when I played Marvel Vs Capcom 2 on arcade NAOMI board vs Marvel Vs Capcom 2 on Sega Dreamcast, the arcade one had more frames of animation?!
I've seen where Naomi games seem to look/ play slightly better running on Naomi than on Dreamcast, but I'm not sure if that's due to emulator enhancements or how it was natively on Naomi arcade games. I would think with the extra horsepower, the Naomi board will yield a higher, more stable framerate with more textures. Frames of animation, however, should've been equal since Dreamcast had more than adequate RAM? Interesting question to investigate...
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Is seriesS like s spiritual successor to dreamcast. If consoles didnt go big thats what they would be like.
Unbelievably the dreamcast only consumed 20watts during gameplay while SeriesS consumes about 80watts

 
Is seriesS like s spiritual successor to dreamcast. If consoles didnt go big thats what they would be like.
Unbelievably the dreamcast only consumed 20watts during gameplay while SeriesS consumes about 80watts



It reminds me of the DC in some ways. Make it into a DC emulation machine and it gets even better.
 
I remember the day I got my DC.

After my birthday I was given a choice, I can go to Disneyland Paris with friends or have a DC with all the games I want.

Like a true hardcore Gamer I obviously chose the second option. Anyway I was standing in line with the DC box and a decent amount of games and accessories and some punk ass Sony rat kid with his parents noticed me and said to his parents how he was waiting for the PS2 release. Loudly. What a fool I thought. No way I was waiting for a PS2 instead. I got the system and games and had the time of my life.

I did get a PS2 a few years later and enjoyed it, but I never regretted holding it off and getting the DC instead. I remember my first few nights with the system going online and playing Planet Ring. Such great memories.
 
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Ozzie666

Member
Dreamcast really encapsulated the Sega 'soul and spirit', it's almost unexplainable. Even with the crap joystick design it was still charming. Unfortunately, not profitable by itself. I find it fascinating people really have more positive feelings to tragic failed consoles like Dreamcast and Saturn, maybe even the 32X. Where was the love when they were actually on the market fighting for survival.
 

Naked Lunch

Member
Dreamcast really encapsulated the Sega 'soul and spirit', it's almost unexplainable. Even with the crap joystick design it was still charming. Unfortunately, not profitable by itself. I find it fascinating people really have more positive feelings to tragic failed consoles like Dreamcast and Saturn, maybe even the 32X. Where was the love when they were actually on the market fighting for survival.
Well for DC - it got steamrolled by the PS2. Much discussion about that earlier in this thread. I worked in a game store at that time and people just flat out ignored the DC even though it had better games during the direct head to head times on the market - like Madden compared to NFL2k.
Also the bluray player inclusion (or exclusion in DC's case) was huge at that time.
EDIT: I meant DVD thanks BlackTron BlackTron !

But for Saturn - I think most of the love in recent years is re-discovering the huge Japanese library. From what I recall Saturn did pretty well in Japan even releasing games like Street Fighter Zero 3 after or during the Dreamcast version. The Saturn version is better too.
 
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BlackTron

Member
Well for DC - it got steamrolled by the PS2. Much discussion about that earlier in this thread. I worked in a game store at that time and people just flat out ignored the DC even though it had better games during the direct head to head times on the market - like Madden compared to NFL2k.
Also the bluray player inclusion (or exclusion in DC's case) was huge at that time.

It's all blurring together for you man.

That was DVD, not bluray in PS2!!
 

dcx4610

Member
Incredibly innovative and the very first console to have actual 1:1 arcade ports (and usually) better. 3DO came close but Dreamcast actually pulled it off. I remember thinking that for the first time ever, you really didn't have to go to the arcade anymore and that was kinda cool but depressing.

The downside to me was the library. At least for the U.S.. There just wasn't anything I wanted to play on it.
 
Incredibly innovative and the very first console to have actual 1:1 arcade ports (and usually) better. 3DO came close but Dreamcast actually pulled it off. I remember thinking that for the first time ever, you really didn't have to go to the arcade anymore and that was kinda cool but depressing.

The downside to me was the library. At least for the U.S.. There just wasn't anything I wanted to play on it.
It wasn't really. The Neo Geo did that before the DC and it's wasn't that hard to have near perfect ports when you're using the same hardware in the Arcades to the home. The Saturn and PS were the 1st systems where I saw near perfect Arcade ports of games not using the same harder in the home and Arcades
 

spookyfish

Member
Bought the DC, 3 extra controllers, two VMUs, the two arcade sticks, Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur and Mortal Kombat Gold for launch.

I think I’m STILL paying off my credit card on that.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Anybody know what this game is and if it's at all worthwhile? It seems pretty clunky but potentially interesting. It's a remake to a PS1 game that looks even clunkier (duh) apparently but there's barely any footage of it. It gives me Space Hulk vibes. Surely it had things going for it if they remade it?
 
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Tumle

Member
Listen Gaf. I don't need to write a long post about why the DC is the best console ever, but lets take a short sweet trip down memory lane.

  1. Online gaming before anyone else (Yes I know NES had a modem where you can access a limited internet network, but that was for things like ordering pizza etc)
  2. VMU. I think this was incredible. Sonic Adventure where I can download the pets found in game into the VMU, use it as a portable Tamigotchi and then reupload to the game whenever I wanted??? Amazing)
  3. Innovotive and exciting games. Seaman using the mic with the voice of Leonard Nimroy as the pet fish, Headhunter, Skies of Arcadia, Planet Ring, Power Stone, Shenmue, PS0 etc.
  4. Amazing LE consoles and import games, if you were into the import scene like I was the DC/PS2 era was the last great generation for imports.
  5. NGPC to DC link up. Forget hooking up your vita to the your PS4 or GBA to GC. The Dreamcast did it first and it worked amazingly. SNK and Sega a great match.
DONE
I just remembered that one of the most overlooked aspects of the Dreamcast is its controller. Its design is absolutely amazing. The analog stick feels SO GOOD, it's like butter. The only controller which has surpassed the Dreamcast's analog stick is Sony's DualSense analog sticks on the PS5.
 
Anybody know what this game is and if it's at all worthwhile? It seems pretty clunky but potentially interesting. It's a remake to a PS1 game that looks even clunkier (duh) apparently but there's barely any footage of it. It gives me Space Hulk vibes. Surely it had things going for it if they remade it?


It is the better version of Space Griffon VF-9.

It's a horror action game with inventory management like RE, but with tactical real-time combat like (in some ways) 3DO Space Hulk: Vengeance, it usually takes place in a mech, but there are times you are on foot where you are most vulnerable.

I would call the game ambitious. It adds a few unique ideas, had decent production with the audio and cutscenes, and is worth a playthrough. But some of the combat decisions and other elements may start to get a bit tedious but the game ends before it gets to pad.

A solid 7/10 if you are into a more tactical game, if not it may not be very interesting.
 
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