Gaming Bits: Sega Dreamcast: One Last Effort to Save Sega... (56k WARNING)

This Gaming Bits Segment is brought to you by the A. Yoshi Patreon...

Oh Dreamcast...
Yeah Dreamcast...
I'll always be with you, Dreamcast...
Dreamcast Oh yeah...
From your red swirly logo,
To your 128 bits of power...
I'll always be with you, Dreamcast...
Dreamcast Oh yeah...
I love you DC...
You Know I Love You...
You Know I Love You...
You Know I Love You...
You Know I Love You...

Yoshiette 1: What the... stop making out with the Dreamcast. It's not HUMANOID!!!!!

A. Yoshi: Can you please SHUT THE F**K UP?! I'd rather date a slice of toast rather than you!!!!!!!

YE1: WHAT. DID. YOU. JUST. S... WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Now that I've gotten that out of the way, Time to talk about the Dreamcast for it's sweet 16...

This is a  followup to my Sega Saturn post, so if you haven't already, read it!!!!!!


Now that you've indulged into that history lesson, Let's recap, Sega released the Saturn, It was huge in Japan, but not so in other parts in the world. It wasn't as popular or as powerful as the PS1, or even the N64 in america. But now Sega was working with companies like Lockheed Martin, NVidia, and 3Dfx, among others. 2 prototypes, codenamed Black Belt and Katana in development were possible candidates. In the end it would be a 128-bit system that came packaged with a 56k modem, 128 bits of power, and a new CD-ROM Standard known as GD-ROM (Or Gigabyte Discs with 1.2 GB of data). This console will now and forever be known as DREAMCAST!!!!!!!!!

It was everything that the Saturn Wasn't, Easy to program for, More powerful than it's competition at the time, a cheap intro price of $199, and it's launch wasn't rushed. In Japan it was released in late 1998, it didn't sell as much as planned due to chip shortages by NEC. However, later in 9/9/1999, in America it sold 500,000 units in just 2 weeks, Thanks to titles like Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, NFL 2K, and plenty more released later that year like Marvel VS Capcom and Hydro Thunder. Another reason it was popular was thanks to the internet connection out of the box, plus great graphics and low price for a new console.



Let's talk about some of the features of the Dreamcast...

The controller was really good for the time, with a place for Memory cards, rumble packs, and micrphones, two in fact so you could have rumble and saves for the same controller. It also had 2 analog triggers, an analog stick, a D-Pad, 4 face buttons, and a start button. It was very much an improvement from the regular Saturn Controller, which was essentially a Genesis Controller.

There was the Jump Pack (which gave you rumble), and the microphone (which worked with Seaman (RIP Leonard Nimoy)), but the biggest peripheral of all was the VMU (Or Visual Memory Unit). It was more than just a memory card, you could transfer Data, play downloadable Mini Games, and it displayed things like health of characters, ranking on some games, but most of the time it just displayed logos. It was like it's own game console in a console... Unfortunately It didn't care that much saves, but many 3rd party's added as much as 800 blocks.

Another popular feature was the Modem, both in the 56k and Broadband varieties, Comment if you are reading this on the Dreamcast web browser. Private servers are still up even if the official servers are down. You could also play online games like Unreal Tournament, NFL 2K1, NBA 2K1, and of course, Phantasy Star Online.

For playing games in the best quality, I recommend the VGA Box, even if certain games don't support it naturally, you can force it in some ways.




There were plenty of controllers for the Dream Machine, Here's just a few Examples...

GAMES:

You cannot mention Dreamcast without talking Sonic Adventure, 1 & 2, the first true 3D sonic Games, and one of the only good games in the category...

Soul Calibur, a better than the Arcade conversion of the landmark fighting game.

Soul Calibur wasn't the only good fighting game in the Dreamcast catalog, There was Games like Dead Or Alive 2, Marvel VS Capcom 1 & 2,  Guilty Gear X, and plenty more...

Dreamcast brought sports online with it's 2K series. NFL 2K1 sold more than Madden that year. Heck it even had it's own Dreamcast color.

Crazy Taxi, an a crazy driving game where you drive a taxi...

Typing of the Dead. A game where you Use your Dreamcast Keyboard to Kill Zombies!!!! It's as awesome as it sounds.

Ikaruga, The spiritual Successor to Radiant Silvergun...

Jet Grind/Set Radio, the (possibly) one and only roller skating centered game.

Phantasy Star Online. The game that brought MMOs onto Consoles as Goldeneye did for FPS games...

Skies of Arcadia, the Dreamcast's best solo RPG.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica, the Original non Playstation Resident Evil game...

and lastly, Shenmue, a game with promises of one of gaming's biggest epics that is just starting to complete 15 years into existence.




WITH ALL THIS PROMISE, WHAT HAPPENED?

People haven't stopped being mad at Sega after their many failures, and thought it was best to wait until the PS2 (the Dreamcast Killer), XBOX (Which some elements were inspired by Dreamcast), and the Gamecube. IIRC It was the first video game console my Brother ever heard of, but he thought it would be better get a N64. Later he got the Gamecube and I got the PS2 around the time the Dreamcast died, and (to be blunt) that was kind of the better investment. But even then The DC was my Favorite Sega Console of all time. Wait, A Controller with A Screen, Trying to succeed a console that failed to reach anyone but key demographics, better internet connectivity, pressure from strong competition, better received than it's predecessor but not enough, Lack of 3rd party support, Sound Familliar? I don't know, You tell me...






HOW CAN I EXPERIENCE IT?

You could get a Dreamcast and games yourself (which has started to come up in price in recent years, nothing ridiculous, but don't wait for too long if you want one at the best possible price), or emulation (again Dreamcast emulation's kind of a mess at the moment, so try different emulators until you find one that satisfies you if you feel like it).


So that's it, this series'll cover the

1. Neo Geo Pocket Color
2. Hyper Neo Geo 64
3. 3DO and the mystery of the M2
4. The Nintendo 64
5. The Game Boy Color
6. the Playstation 1
7. and the Wonderswan/WonderSwan Color/SwanCrystal

in future installments of Gaming Bits, but for my 250th blog, It'll be my Nintendo Double Diamon Retrospective Daizenshuu.

But the Next Gaming Bits Will Be:

All images belong to their respective owners and this blog is meant to be educational, so these images are protected under fair use. However, if you'd like one or more images taken down, please contact me at Anonymousyoshi007@gmail.com.