Topic: Dreamcast Revival?

Since I was so young at the time, I never got a chance to play or even knew that the Dreamcast existed. I looked into my Gamecube collection and saw that several of my games were originally Dreamcast games. I have Crazy Taxi, and both Sonic Adventure games. After playing them again, I wanted to go and see other Dreamcast games, and I can say that I missed out on some great games. Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Jet Set Radio, Phantasy Star Online, Shenmue, and even that weird aquarium game game that actually looked sorta interesting. The Seaman one. Anyway, since it's about 10 years after it's release, what are people's memories of it, what games have you played, and do you regret not getting a Dreamcast. And if you could, what games would you want to have updated, and do you think that they will ever be rereleased on a downloadable service?

Well with the leaked Sony/SEGA doc,Dreamcast games and PS2 games are coming to PSN.
Also Sonic Adventure 1 is coming to XBL.

Yep Sean beat me to the chase. It does look like there is a big possibility of Dreamcast titles ending up on PS3s PSN service. If that happens it wouldnt suprise me if they find there way onto XBOX Live Marketplace either. Honestly I hope they end up on both so gamers everywhere can experience the greatness SEGA had going right before their failure.

When Sonic Adventure comes to XBL, should I get it? I already have Adventure DX.

@StarFox.

From what I heard Adventure DX wasn't the best port and was pretty glitchy compared to the original (I've only played the original, so I can't say either way). However, there are some multiplayer features it adds. I'd wait to hear a review to see how good the port is and what, if any, added stuff there is on it before making a choice.

DX had mission mode, but I still prefer the original. I thought it looked nicer.

@starfox... I've heard nothing of dremcast games coming to xbox, I'm thinking it might, but from the leaks, its a Sony and sega deal. Sega is also looking for funding for shenmue 3 and Sony may be there on that one too. The xbox thing was just me talking.

@slappy

Sega releases everything else on all three platforms. I'm sure if Microsoft said they could put DC games on there, they would.

I still play my Dreamcast quite a bit and I even still pickup games that I have missed. I did get a Dreamcast on release, 9-9-99, but I did miss out on some games due to my addiction to UT and Quake 3. Like Hydro Thunder, Virtua Tennis and Dynamite Cop, I did not purchase until a few years ago. I also missed out on some of the other online games.

I always wanted to see a full game that played like the shooting levels from Sonic Adventure 1-2; those levels were some of my favorites.

As for remakes, I'd take any of Midway's old racers. Up the graphics, add in online multiplayer and I'd be sold.

Some of my faves:
4x4 Evo
Crazy Taxi 1-2
Dynamite Cop
Hydro Thunder
Jet Grind Radio
Quake III: Arena
Samba de Amigo
San Francisco Rush 2049
Sonic Adventure 1-2
Virtua Tennis
Unreal Tournament

What a lot of people forget (usually by being too young to remember) is the sense of awe the Dreamcast brought with it. Games weren't supposed to look as good as they did in 1999. We were still used to the blocky characters and pixilated environments of the day. Hell, my friend worked at Toys R Us and got to bring the display console home before they put it in the store and we were amazed when Sonics footprints didn't disappear in the sand. We were blown away by the AI on NFL 2K and how fluid everything was.

I know it was only 10 years ago, but when you think about the 10 years prior to the Dreamcast and today there hasn't been a jump in the tech like it. Sure graphics have been bumped up a bit (some of the DC games hold up well today as far as I'm concerned) and we have better storage mediums, but the jump from the SNES/Genesis era to the DC is light years beyond the jump from the DC to the Wii, 360 and PS3.

I still believe the main reason it died was DVD. If they would've gotten the years jump on the PS2 with an affordable DVD player and a console that (I and many Dreamcast fans feel) was a better gaming system than the PS2, this would be an entirely different console battle today.

If I was to give the Dreamcast a theme song it would have to be Jon Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory". It went out there kicked ass and then finally went to that big arcade in the sky.

I didn't know that the dreamcast existed until last year. I bought one recently and it is really cool and ahead of it's time. So far I just have Shenmue but I'm enjoying every bit of it.

I bought a Dreamcast toward the end of the system's life, and got it pretty cheap. I had MvC 2, RE:CV, Soul Caliber, and Jet Grind Radio. I had a lot of fun with it, but I ended up trading it in toward a PS2 later on. I remember the memory cards were like those virtual pet things that were all the rage back then, but I also remember the controller was pretty bad. If I got one now, I would definitely use it for emulation more than anything. I never realized it was so easy with that system.

I don't believe it's the DVD. The Dreamcast just came too late to compete with the N64 and PS1, and it hurts that it came when the PS2/X-Box/GCN gen were underway. It just came at a bad time, sandwiched between both gens when most everyone already got settled with a N64/PS1 and waiting on PS2/X-Box/GCN.

believe it or not the ps2 having a dvd drive is the big part that killed the dreamcast, the dreamcast was part of last gen the graphic chip was better then ps2, but in japan the ps2 was a lot cheaper then dvd players so a lot of stores were selling it as a dvd player that played games
i feel the dreamcast was the best system of that decade it died before its time

The ps2 was the best system of that generation but dreamcast was still really good. Bought one off of ebay pretty cheap recently then downloaded and burned a huge amount of games since its pretty easy to do for dreamcast as well as homebrew. Wouldn't do that for any games still being made though.

Anyway I'd agree that not having a dvd drive did have a big impact on the dreamcast. Dvd was a completely new technology and people wanted it bad so ps2 having it comparatively cheap was a big deal. Blu ray isn't nearly as big a deal as its just an upgrade of existing tech. Also, I think a lot of great games staying in japan also hurt the dreamcast. It had a big launch but sega just stopped caring after ps2 game out.

Yeah, I suppose the DVD was a bigger factor. I forgot the fact of it being new that time.

Should I feel old that some gamers today find the Dreamcast to be a relic of a time before they existed? 9/9/99 will always be stuck in my head because of the Dreamcast. I was too busy playing Perfect Dark to care about this thing at the time and being from a small town, it was tough for people to put out money for more than one console (everyone had an N64). I got one at the end of its lifespan as well and I remember buying Jet Grind Radio for three bucks new. Sold it with about 15 games including JGR, Crazy Taxi, MvC 2, Resident Evil, etc for 50 freakin bucks in '04. The first and last time I'll ever sell a console.

@Wardy Nah, don't feel old because of it. I remember 9-9-99, too. I was featured on the local news since I was the first one in the city to get one that morning. It was ki nd of unfair though, and I made mention that it was to the reporter at the time since I worked part time at Software Etc. (now Gamestop) at the time and got inside before the store opened while others waited in line for hours (it was at a mall and they wouldn't let people camp overnight lol), so the person who was there the longest got shunned by the station. I did manage to get him a few t-shirts and stuff SEGA sent to us for the launch to make up for it.

The funniest thing was I worked full time at a records keeping place at the time and called in sick that day. (Hey I had SOul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, NFL 2k and House of the Dead 2 to play) Well, the boss told me "Ok, not a problem. Have fun playing that SEGA thing"
I didn't realize that the report was live on our morning show here and she had seen it. I was so busted. I told her I'd come in and she said it was cool since I had worked there for over two years and never called in and worked a lot of extra weekends, so she gave me the 9th off and told me to take the rest of the week off and she'd put it down as vacation time. Good times...

Nice story! Most bosses wouldn't be that cool today, no matter how good of an employee you are.

I think the Dreamcast was too far ahead of its time - not just in terms of games but also technology. Until the Dreamcast was released, it was pretty much unheard of to sell a games console at a loss and make the money back on the games - generally consoles were sold for a profit.

Obviously that means the PS2 and, later, the XBOX and GameCube had to match that level of graphical capability too. Should we really be at the level of the PS3 and 360 now? Maybe the Wii, which isn't really that much more powerful than the 10 year old Dreamcast, is actually the level of technology games consoles should be at today (since it's the only one sold for a profit).