New adventures in Dreamcast: Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A New Beginning 

17th February 2008. Edinburgh. 

The previous night I had attended a Leonard Cohen concert at the city’s historic Castle, thanks to a bizarre financial scandal forcing the famed crooner into an unexpected tour. Despite Leonard’s best efforts, the weekend had been a tense affair. Without going into too much detail, I was in a awkward place with my fellow gig-goer and starting to regret my time away. 

Except… Through a Scottish ‘Gamestation’ window: a saviour beckoned. Its shine may have faded following a cruel, forced exile into the wilderness, an apologetic ‘£15’ sticker adding to the ignominy – but the alluring mystique remained. I had done my research: I knew about the amazing, unique experiences this magical device offered. 

As I returned home and loaded up Sonic Adventure 2, with its wonky camera and awkward rap songs about finding chaos emeralds, disappointment turned to joy as a new connection began. And there you have it folks: the most dramatic introduction to an article you’ll ever see* about the Sega Dreamcast.

*Please message me if there actually is a more dramatic article, I’d be impressed.

Over the following year my Dreamcast provided lots of entertainment, hosting multiplayer Chu-Chu Rocket and Soul Calibur sessions and a Shenmue play-through that bewildered my housemates as my character slowly wandered around a 1980s Japan muttering “I see” as he searched for sailors (I’m not even joking).

Sadly my Dreamcast play-time has gradually reduced over the years due to technical malfunctions and the allure of newer consoles. Yet, the above origin story and the excitement I experienced means I’ll always have a soft spot for the Sega Dreamcast. However looking beyond nostalgia, there has been a recent development that has led me to start this new series of Dreamcast articles.

Through some wheeling and dealing* and kind support from my amazing wife, I have been able to procure another working Dreamcast and several acclaimed games that I never previously got the chance to play. 

* Let me give a quick tribute here to my yellowing Super Nintendo friend, traded in for the greater good - your spirit will live on through the SNES Mini and my laminated childhood ‘SNES Club’ badge. (Yes, I was *that* kind of a child.)

As I’m enjoying these games for the first time, I thought it would be fun to document my experiences. So over the coming months I’ll be sharing articles about my first-time playthroughs of Shenmue 2, Skies of Arcadia and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Regardless of your interest in the console I really hope you join me as it promises to be an entertaining ride – a feeling that’s only been strengthened having just played the bizarre and entrancing opening of Shenmue 2, which will be the focus of my next article.

If you don’t know much about the Dreamcast then I’ve provided a little summary below of the console’s background and why it’s so highly regarded by geeks like me. Otherwise I look forward to seeing you next time on this Dreamtastic (sorry) deep-dive!

Why is the Dreamcast a big deal?

Sega released the Dreamcast console in Japan in 1998, and then in the US and Europe the following year. Sega had relatively quickly abandoned their focus on the previous ‘Sega Saturn’ console so they could steal a head start on their rivals’ impending PS2, GameCube and Xbox releases.

Aside from offering a significant graphical upgrade on existing consoles, the Dreamcast boasted some unique features. The Dreamcast was the first mainstream console to enable online play. It’s true the PlayStation 2 would eventually offer this too but in much more low-key fashion, through a separately-sold attachment released late in the console’s lifespan.

The Dreamcast also had an unusual controller featuring a slot for a ‘Visual Memory Unit’ – in other words a fancy memory card with its own screen offering Tamagotchi-style games. It perhaps was not too dissimilar to Sony’s failed ‘Pocketstation’ device, but once again Sega made this a much more prominent and integral feature than anything attempted by their rivals.

These are great features and interesting curios, but where the Dreamcast really shines are the games. For a console with a relatively short lifespan, the variety and uniqueness of its game catalogue is impressive. 

Let’s take in some examples:

• A game where you must defeat zombies through your speed-typing skills.
• A detailed recreation of 1980’s Japan where you could freely explore your expansive surroundings and live your life, years before Grand Theft Auto 3 emerged.
• A game where you can use a supplied microphone to converse with a humanoid fish, with narration supplied by Leonard Nimoy.
• A futuristic take on roller skating, where your main objective is to apply graffiti.
• A congos game featuring a monkey.
• A competitive puzzle game where you ensure mice reach their rockets before being eaten by evil space cats. 
• The list could go on. 

I’ve mentioned some of the quirkier releases here, but in more mainstream genres the console also featured absolute classics like Soul Calibur and Powerstone. There were also well regarded and enhanced ports of Ps1 games such as Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain. 

Sadly after a decent start, sales diminished and the console was discontinued in 2001? So what went wrong? It’s often easy to criticise business decisions in retrospect and there’s lots of online debate, but I personally support the view that Sega did not do a huge amount wrong in terms of the console design and promotion. You could say that their missteps – lack of support from some key publishers like EA, the console perhaps being too early for the online console gaming boom – were outweighed by factors outside their control: like the damage to Sega’s brand from previous misadventures (the 32x anyone?) and the world eagerly holding off for the PS2 – a console that had a terrible launch line up, but in fairness was innovative in its own way and ultimately ended up with one of the best game catalogues out there.

So there you have it, a very quick history of the Dreamcast. Its commercial failure was a sad tale, but at least Sega managed to survive as a prolific games publisher and developer – and it’s heartening that the Dreamcast has achieved cult status, it’s greatness at least being recognised in retrospect. Now, let’s hope Sega release a modern, mini version at some point! 

Joe’s Archive – New adventures in Dreamcast: Chapter 1

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