PC PC GAMES

When people talk about retro-gaming, two things are referenced in one’s mind. They either think of arcade games (ie Pac-Man, Galaxian) that they spent their hard-earned allowances on as kids, or they think of the old console systems like the Atari 2600 or the NES.

But one console that I believe stands out from the rest of the pack is the Sega Dreamcast. You might ask, why I would consider the Dreamcast as a retro console? The simplest answer would be just to say because it isn’t in production anymore and leave it at that. A better answer would be to say it is an amazing system that has a great library of software but it never received the recognition it deserved during it’s short life span as the first 128-bit game console.

The Dreamcast was released in Japan, November 1998, in the U.S on 9/9/99 and in Europe, October 1999 and was loosely based off the Sega NAOMI system which were used in their arcade games. Taking a first glance at the console, it just looks like a little gray box. Nothing fancy or even appealing to the eye. And depending on if you are from the U.S./Japan or Europe, the swirl on the CD lid would either be reddish orange for the former or blue for the latter. The system came with one controller, a VMU (I will get into what the VMU is later) and a built in modem for online gaming.

But like any sports car, it’s what’s under the hood that counts. And that is where the story gets interesting. The console is powered by a Hitachi 200MHz SH4 processor and the128 bit Power VR2 graphic processor. The sound chip is a Yamaha. After working with Microsoft for two years, the system utilized a special version of Microsoft’s Windows CE that would support DirectX. Some say that this was the stepping stone that Microsoft took from in order to design the X-Box. The built in 56k modem allowed the Sega Dreamcast to become one of the first game consoles with the ability to play online games such as “Phantasy Star Online” – of which still remains a classic today.

The Dreamcast was also unique in it’s controllers and other peripherals. The standard controller has analog and digital controls. The controller can be a bit bulky for some people but there were third party companies like Mad Catz that produced different controllers that are more manageable. There is a mouse and keyboard designed for “Typing of the Dead”. A fishing reel allows you to realistically fish in “Sega Bass Fishing” and “Sega Marine Fishing”. Microphones were used to play the virtual creature “Seaman” and “Alien Front Online”. “Samba de Amigo” – Sega’s answer to “Dance Dance Revolution” – is played by shaking your maracas to the music and striking poses. There was a wheel for driving games. Even the NeoGeo Pocket had the ability to connect to the system. And if you wanted to play your games on a VGA monitor for better clarity, there is a VGA converter. However, not all games are compatible to run on VGA monitors. And last but not least, the VMU. The VMU is really two devices in one. First and foremost, it is a memory card with a mini LCD screen . Secondly, it is a hand-held unit that can download mini games from particular games or you can hook two together and play against each other.

Fishing Reel Maracas
There is a fantastic library of games such as “Shenmue” and “Shenmue II”. Arcade hits like “The House of the Dead 2” and “Crazy Taxi”. First editions made specifically for the Dreamcast at the time like “Resident Evil: Code Veronica”. “Soul Calibur” was so good that Namco decided to use the NAOMI board for the arcade and ported the Dreamcast version over to it.

“Soul Calibur” “Shenmue”
But Sega’s reign in the 128-bit arena was soon to be upturned by Sony with their announcement of the PS2. Faithful Sony fanboys were not going to spend money on a Dreamcast when they could have the PS2, that not only had a new library of games designed for it, but was also backwards compatible with PSOne games. Plus the PS2 was equipped with a DVD drive for playback of DVD movies. Many people bought the PS2 strictly for watching DVDs because conventional DVD players were more expensive at the time. Sega soon succumbed and cut their losses in the hardware business. Sega seized the Dreamcast production and availability February 2002 in North America. However, the Dreamcast would still live on in Japan until March 2007.

Once Sega announced that they would be a software developer only, they immediately began to port their games over to the newer systems and still are to this day. In fact, Sega’s flagship mascot Sonic soon appeared alongside other well known mascots like Nintendo’s Mario.

In conclusion, the Dreamcast is/was a special system. It has now become more active in the retro-gaming community due to collectors finally realizing it’s worth along with the homebrew seen. With a library of great games, it’s worth any collectors time and money to invest in one of the most enjoyable retro console systems ever made.
In the future, I will be examining games for the Dreamcast and for other systems as well. I decided to make my first run here on PC PC GAMES.com with a history of the Dreamcast before I reviewed any games for the console. I will be doing the same with systems such as the NES, SNES, TG-16 and numerous other consoles. I will also be looking at classic retro arcade games.

I hope this little trip back in time was informative and enjoyable to read. If you have any comments or ideas, please keep the feedback coming. We’ll see you soon with some reviews of games.

GAME OVER