We love a good book here at Nintendo Life, and they don't get much better than Read-Only Memory's Collected Works series, which takes an in-depth look at classic consoles. As a follow-on to the excellent Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works there is now a Dreamcast book campaign on Kickstarter. Launched last Tuesday, it has already smashed the funding target.
This large format, deluxe hardback will feature a collection of never-before-published materials and specially commissioned editorial, aiming to offer unprecedented insight into the creation of the Dreamcast console and its celebrated library of games. The book will also feature a variety of interesting pieces of history: manufacturing prototypes, photography of rare hardware, game development materials and game imagery.
We'll be keeping our eyes out for this and doing a book review when the time comes. While the Dreamcast was of course SEGA's last console, it shares a fond spot in the hearts of many Nintendo gamers.
Will you be backing this campaign?
[source kickstarter.com]
Comments 61
Some of those games were pretty good.
@Kalmaro Just 'pretty good'?
@StuTwo Yep! I never got a chance to play some of the bigger games, sadly.
No. This is not Nintendo news.
Still waiting* for a proper PSO2--I'd even settle for a PSP3 on Switch, at this point.
*And about 50 other games, SEGA.
(I still bleed SEGA blue when cut, even if modern SEGA is the palest of pale shadows of its former self.)
Just give us shenmue! One of the best games after.
@ECMIM "I still bleed SEGA blue when cut, "
Do pachinko chips fall out, too?
Read title as "Sega Dreamcast Collection looks like a dream come true" which led me to believe a Dreamcast Collection on Switch was coming for a split second. Darn. I've never had the chance to experience the vast majority of the games. If the VC does ever come back, I'd really like to see Sega support again (specifically Saturn/Dreamcast).
Backed straight away, the Mega Drive book was absolutely superb so it was a no-brainer for me. Really wish they'd done a Saturn book instead though!
Where's that 'take my money' meme?
I like the margins!
No one wants to look at good art in an ugly book.
@samuelvictor
"Did the 32X and MegaCD really burn punters THAT much?"
That and the Saturn.
The business side of Sega is the case study for video games platform holders regarding what NOT to do. Crazy thing is, the creative side of Sega was putting out so many good games!
Ahh the dreamcast such a great console, very short lived but it had some great and unique games on there.
I stood by my dreamcast til the end, even when ps2 was around the corner and everyone was so hype for that -_- but i agree with the person above, ps2 didn't have ANYTHING i wanted to play for at least a year. I'm sure the built in dvd player was the major selling point especially at the beginning.
Anyways off topic, i would like to have this book, would be great for the coffee table;)
@justin233 Yeah I also assumed this was a collection of DC games for the Switch.
How boring. Who would spend money for a book about DC games?! It's 2017 people, you can just read about them online. Guess what, you can even watch videos of DC games online!
I initially got the Dreamcast after playing Crazy Taxi on a ferry to London, but it didn't last long before I got plenty of other games as well. Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 (bring back the Chao!), Soul Calibur, Shenmue, Jet Grind (Set) Radio, Skies of Arcadia (come on, give us a sequel!), Power Stone 1 & 2, Chu Chu Rocket, Ooga Booga, Typing of the Dead, Bangai-O, Marvel vs Capcom, Metropolis Street Racer, NBA 2K2... I would love to see these games on the Switch one way or another...
I have a lovely little Dreamcast packed away in the attic somewhere with some cracking games as well. It was a great system.
Like others, I clicked here thinking this article might be about a compilation of Dreamcast games. Disappointing.
While others may not share my personal opinion on this, I still have my Saturn and consider it to be the most vastly underrated console of all time. So many incredible RPGs and other classics that few gamers ever got to experience...and yet Sega has always treated it like an ugly stepchild they'd like to forget existed. The Dreamcast gets a lot more love from both Sega and gamers, but at the end of the day it was Sega's own ineptitude and internal meddling that cost the company its perch atop the industry's echelon. The Saturn probably reminds them more of that fall because it happened right after the success of the Genesis; it's no fault of the games on the system, I can assure you.
@samuelvictor Definitely sharing the love, brother.
Still one of my favorite consoles of all time, and I still have it hooked up to the TV, for the odd game every now and then. It had some of the most pixel perfect arcade conversions ever seen on any system, even to this day, and besides that, it has many, many other great titles, so there's something there for everybody.
Those that haven't had one or played on one, have definitely missed out. Luckily, it's actually quite easy to still buy one, and they only cost around fifty bucks, so that's next to nothing, and most of them accept burned discs, so getting games is pretty easy too, although obviously, originals in those quirky big boxes are preferable...
Too bad that my modern TV doesn't accept light guns anymore, though, so sadly, all of these type of games are gathering quite a bit more dust than my other Dreamcast titles. Oh, well...
This book looks great, though. Can't believe I haven't heard of it before, being the Dreamcast fan that I am. Guess I'll wait and see how it pans out and if it's worth getting one.
I loved the Dreamcast. In fact, it remains the only console I have ever bought right at midnight on launch day.
I also liked the Saturn as well, despite awful business decisions and a sneaky, underhanded surprise launch that caught everyone off guard.
Will track the book down and grab it! Meanwhile Sega, when are we going to see some Dreamcast hits on current gen consoles?? Cmon guys!!
Super Famicom and Sega Dreamcast, my two favourite consoles ever. I backed this as soon as I saw it, it's just a shame they aren't doing guest reviews like they did with the SNES book.
Apparently the book will only have the blue swirl logo in Europe to avoid the same copyright problems that caused Sega to change the swirl colour.
Argh, the title of that article seriously made me think, for one glorious moment, that a Dreamcast Collection was heading to Switch!
If you haven't played the Dreamcast, you seriously missed out! Skies of Arcadia, Marvel Vs. Capcom 1 and 2, Resident Evil Code Veronica, Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue (one of my absolute favorite games ever!), Soul Caliber, Dynamite Cop, the only good version of Grandia 2, Typing of the Dead, Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, the 2K sports line (far superior to EA).....it's sad that Sega will pump out Genesis Collection after Genesis Collection ("because that was Sega's best selling console." I'm well aware). The Dreamcast deserved to be far more than a mere footnote and, had Sega not burned their own bridges with years' worth of add-ons (I still have a soft spot for Sega CD, though) and overpriced consoles (Sega Saturn was a great console undone by it's own architecture and by a surprise early launch).
Man, now I'm itching to go on ebay and spend a fortune on Dreamcast games! Thanks, jerks! LOL!
@NEStalgia no, just bitter tears
POWER STONE!
D'oh! When I first saw this I immediately thought it was a "rare replay" type games collection.
Makes me all the more disappointed its a copy and paste of a press release.
Sega Dreamcast, first console I ever bought with my own money! I too desperately wanted it to succeed, my Dad bought me a Sega Saturn one Christmas, it's all I wanted. I even convinced some friends to get a Saturn despite the Sony PlayStation totally dominating it. I was gutted when it became obviously Dreamcast was not gonna survive. I have never & will never buy a PlayStation product lol.
I still play my dreamcast,lol!
I always make time for a forklift race and some darts in shenmue!
Dang. And here I was hoping that they announced Dreamcast VC appearing on the Switch. How foolish of me to think such an absurb idea
My favorite console of all time. I will one day own a full US collection. I swear =)
My friend who help me for ordering my games from internet also has a Dreamcast.
I saw it with my own eyes the machine, the controller and the games that he had.
I'm not a SEGA fan but I felt sorry for Sudden discontinuation of Dreamcast.
@justin233
it was more than a split second for me.
just gave away my dreamcast cuz only had like 2 games for it and one of them was a sega arcade collection that i already have the actual genesis games. BUT if they released a disc of like the 10 best dreamcast games I would buy that eventually
They still make games for the Dreamcast! Sure they aren't licensed by Sega, by some of the games are mighty impressive, here's a shameless plug to one we covered on our Youtube :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jqo2dO2UYw
@justin233 you should be able to get a Dreamcast pretty cheap at a used game shop. I can get one for $25 to $50 at my local used games shops.
The title of this article is very misleading, I thought it was going to be a Sega collection on Switch ðŸ˜
@samuelvictor I still have some issues of Gamer's Republic and one of them did a large article on E3 one year and featured a bunch of Dreamcast games and a lot of PS2's launch games. They commented on how the DC versions of games like Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive 2 looked better than the majority of PS2's launch games.
Jeez, you guys got my hopes up. Thought they were making a dreamcast classic edition.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE
Thanks for your equally useful input (sarcasm)
@samuelvictor
Yeah I think you have to separate the two sides of Sega. Just remember the systems for the games and they were amazing. The business side of it was hopeless. I agree a lot of Saturn users probably feel they got good value from it but I remember in 1998 there was a fair amount of anger at how quickly Sega dropped Saturn into the West. They pretty much said they were going to drop it at E3 in 1997 when it had only been out in the West 2 years.
That was, in some eyes, 3 consecutive systems that hadn't fulfilled their potential. No matter how much they got right with Dreamcast (I remember being blown away by Soul Calibur, then blown away again when I played it on a VGA monitor!) they'd snookered themselves before it launched.
Being a regular arcade goer in the 80s and 90s and a Sega fan mainly, this was the machine for me...loved it. So many good memories.
9.9.99 was an amazing day. Despite Dreamcast not having a big library, it's my most memorable system. Gah, always dream of seeing a Dreamcast2 some day.
Anyway, I may be splurging on that JSR special edition.
Looks awesome! Sega has such a great history in gaming. I would love Skies of Arcadia on Switch!
Loved the Dreamcast. I got mine on launch day with Sonic Adventure and picked up Soul Calibur about a week later. I am still disappointed to this day that so many gamers jumped ship to the PlayStation brand. Sure, SEGA made some mistakes with 32X and the Mega CD but they made fantastic games on both console and arcade.
All those great SEGA IPs lost to obscurity because of Sony's successful advertising and handling of the PlayStation, lol.
Still love my Dreamcast to this day. The amount of attention my beloved console is getting recently is just crazy. Several days ago yet another game (Monaco Grand Prix 2) had its online mode restored, and can be played with other people online, several new indie games were announced (or released), and now this... way beyond awesome. <3 Long live the king!
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Thanks for your non-useful comment! I might get it depending on the price of it.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE If you don't like it...then leave.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE
Non-Nintendo related articles like this are great! Plus reading all the wonderful comments on the Sega Dreamcast is awesome! Well except yours.
I have massive nostalgia pangs for the Dreamcast. I don't think a console has ever got me that excited about the evolution of gaming.
I remeber playing Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast collecting all the little animals for the Chao, and then transferring them to the removable save, then looking after them at school. God i was sad, but it made me so happy.
It was all SONY's fault Sega fell apart, when the Saturn came out SONY bought out all the game developers for the Playstation. So the Saturn died even though it was more powerful, CPU and GPU, because the game devs were not there.
So, they bought out the Dreamcast which had Windows CE built in (Most laserjet printers have this nowadays) which unfortunately also died a death. Suddenly Microsoft was bringing out a console, and the original Xbox Controller looked very familiar to the Dreamcast controller.
Please SEGA bring out Saturn and Dreamcast games to the Switch
@samuelvictor
That Arsenal thing was crazy. It didn't make any sense at the time. They got in trouble over their advertising as well didn't they, when the online services weren't actually working at launch? Ah well.
Saturn I only bought in 1999 after it had faded away so just went straight into that brilliant library of games. It was only after I realised how much money they'd lost in 97 and 98 and how little chance Dreamcast stood. Brilliant machine brought down by Sega's mistakes and lack of cash.
@Bunkerneath
"Saturn died even though it was more powerful, CPU and GPUx
Sega made a terrible mess of the Saturn's design. No matter what it had on paper nobody could get that power out of it. Even really good Devs like Lobotomy hated it and preferred the PlayStation.
http://www.segasaturn.co.uk/dd/interviews/ezra_dreisbach.html
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=9391
@TheIronChimp You should get that GDEMU installed! It's great being able to just channel surf all your favourite DC games. I've got the USB-GDROM and removing the GD drive is really easy although you soon realise that most of the noise from the Dreamcast comes from the fan rather than the GD drive!
@samuelvictor yeah I was buying games for £2 from Cash Converters. Had to sell my Saturn and N64 collections in 2002 when I was skint. Very upsetting to even think about TBH.
Totally agree on their advertising being hopeless. A DC and a VGA monitor in 1999 was a generational leap from PS1 and N64.
@subpopz
They used DVD well,no doubt. I still say it was the games that won it for Sony. I didn't buy one at launch but in the 2nd half of 2001 it got (deep breath) Gran Turismo 3, GTA 3, Jak and Daxter, SSX Tricky, Metal Gear Solid 2 (in the USA/Japan anyway), Burnout, Extreme G3, Tony Hawk's 3, Devil May Cry, Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance, Silent Hill 2, a Code Veronica port etc.etc.
@samuelvictor Mancave, huh? Would like to have one myself, but I haven't got the room, nor the extra cash to make one even if I had the room. Color me slightly jealous...
As for our mourning over light gun games, as if it was meant to be, I just received an interesting email today, that offers a solution to that problem:
https://www.dragonbox.de/en/657-sony-bvm-1454d-monitor-monitors.html
These babies are famous among retro gamers, for being able to support all older consoles and displaying them in the best picture quality possible, AND being compatible with light guns...
Very pretty
@samuelvictor Yeah, the size of it kind of put me off too, but that was kind of the standard size for gaming screens back then, so it kind of fits the bill either way.
And no worries about showing off. You've worked hard, so you've earned your share. Life is short, so better enjoy it. Some day, when you're visiting some film festival over here in these parts, we'll have a beer and drink to that...
@samuelvictor yeah, I remember hearing about those games showing up on PS2. I never had a PS2, though. Did those games have anything over the DC versions? More characters maybe?
@samuelvictor Will do mate, will do.
@Koudai1979 I agree with @samuelvictor: these ports were probably hastily slapped onto the PS2, with next to no optimization, all to get even more titles than they already had, and to show people that were perhaps on the fence that "they also had those titles that the Dreamcast offered", but the Dreamcast was very easy to program for and easy to optimize, and the PS2 was not.
The games were made with a Windows CE base in mind, which is what the Dreamcast was running, and they had to be ported over to the in comparison rather alien PS2 Emotion Engine architecture, so without significant optimization, these games would never stand a chance of being equal to their Dreamcast counterparts, which rather ironically, made the definitely weaker console still look decidedly better in the beginning, although that bit of luck didn't last, as we all know...
Funny thing is that the same thing more or less happened in the next generation: when Microsoft had filled the gap of the Dreamcast and the first HD consoles entered the arena, the supposedly superior PS3 generally got the worst versions of multi-plats, because the games were made on Microsoft's hardware and optimized towards the Xbox 360's architecture.
Sony once again chose to go with a weird chipset, so only a few of those multi-platform titles looked and performed better on the PS3, and only with their own titles could they make the hardware shine.
So, looking back at the events surrounding the Dreamcast, it seems that these kind of issues were kind of a recurring thing with Sony back then.
Too bad Sega themselves screwed things up so royally, otherwise things could have turned out quite differently...
Guess we'll never know now...
@ThanosReXXX @samuelvictor I never had a PS2 for very long. If I remember correctly it belonged to my youngest brother and he ended up selling it within about a month or two of getting it so I couldn't really compare for myself.
I remember that DC was powered by Windows CE. I just thought CE was hard to program for because DC was the only device that I ever saw it on.
@shani you must not like print or read books but obviously from the way the kickstarter goal was smashed and immediately funded there are plenty of people who still like to both read and have an awesome collectors book. You can't find what's going to be in this book online which is going to have editorials and never before seen pictures and material. I myself have collected various collectors edition books with concept art & developer interviews. It's a beauty to behold art on page physically, not the same as looking at it online or printing it on a sheet of paper. these things hold value as well. I wouldn't be so quick to judge what tens of thousands of others find fascinating.
For example I find twitch and watching people play video games boring af. I'd rather play the game then watch others play but it's clear hundreds of thousands seem to like watching other people play games, I don't judge.
@MaSSiVeRiCaN I don't know where you're assumptions are coming from or why you would read into my comment that I judged anyone, but you couldn't be more wrong. I do like reading books. But only if they have something to offer (that I can't get elsewhere). E.g. why read a classic encyclopedia when there is Wikipedia (which is much more useful)?
And while I find reading them digitally much more comfortable (in many ways), I do still read physical books from time to time.
But I don't see the worth of a book about old games (yes, I bought Hyrule Historia, but it was actually not an insightful read at all).
And what you wrote about streams (I totally agree) also applies here: why read about games when I could just play them (if I wanted)? That's why this kind of book is totally worthless to me.
@samuelvictor Cool. Thanks for the info.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...