Touch the Future Now at StaplesHappy 10th anniversary, Sega Dreamcast!
There's a lot to keep track of on September 9, with an Apple press conference and the release of The Beatles: Rock Band game. But we'd be remiss if we didn't call attention to the upcoming 10th anniversary of one of the best-loved game consoles of all time. It was 10 years ago tomorrow (September 9, 1999) that Sega released the Dreamcast in North America. Remembered primarily by video game history buffs now, this unassuming white box helped introduce some mainstays of the modern game console--even though the Dreamcast itself had a very short lifespan.
This was the first game system to include a standard built-in 56K modem (this was pre-broadband for most people). It wasn't widely taken advantage of, but some early games, such as the amusing Chu Chu Rocket, proved that multiplayer gaming could work in the living room. More traditional games such as Quake III Arena and Phantasy Star Online also made use of the Dreamcast modem. All but forgotten now, a Dreamcast Web browser was also available.
Unfortunately for Sega, the $199 Dreamcast would prove to be the end of the line for the company as a console maker. The storied lineage of the Sega Master System, Genesis, and Saturn hit a wall as the Dreamcast was quickly overshadowed by the Sony PlayStation 2. The system was discontinued in 2001.
History aside, I have a personal fondness for the Dreamcast, as it was the very first game console launch I covered. Back in 1999, I was an editor at a video game and pop culture Web site called UGO.com (which is still around, and currently owned by Hearst). At the time, we were appropriately impressed with Sega's next step in console hardware, but the steady buzz building over an upcoming uberconsole called the PlayStation 2 quickly drowned out any good will Sega had with gamers.
Besides being my first console launch as a writer covering the games industry, the Dreamcast is also burned in my memory because of my frequent in-office throwdowns with UGO's then-mascot, diminutive actor Gary Coleman. Gary (the subject of the first-ever Web-a-thon fundraiser) was particularly adept at the fighting game Soul Calibur, and even against a room full of 20-something editors at a video-game-themed Web site, we were lucky if we took him down one time out of 10(which would inevitably lead to a profanity-filled tirade).
If this trip down memory lane has you hungry for more Dreamcast nostalgia, embedded below is an episode of a video game history program from a few years ago that features several talking heads (myself included) pontificating about Sega's last-ever console.
New York native Dan Ackerman, a former radio DJ turned journalist, has written about technology and music for publications including Spin, Blender, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. He hosts the weekly Digital City podcast and the New York edition of Editors' Office Hours. Dan's new album, Tales Out of Night School, is available now. E-mail Dan.
Former radio DJ turned
journalist Dan Ackerman grew up in the Bronx and now lives in
Manhattan. He’s covered music, technology, and video games for
more than 10 years. His latest album, Tales Out of Night School
is available now. 
Joseph Kaminski,
when not juggling the dual demands of parenthood and HD gaming, is a
life-long Manhattanite and can be found testing the latest tech in
CNET’s Lab. 
Julie Rivera grew up
and currently resides in Brooklyn. When she's not deejaying,
bartending, or fixing gadgets for friends on the outside, you'll find
her testing, troubleshooting and developing benchmarks for laptops in
the "fish bowl" known as CNET Labs. 
Scott Stein, CNET's
newest laptops editor, was born in Queens and grew up a Long Islander -
and is now raising a kid in NYC. In addition to covering games and
tech, writing screenplays, and performing improv in seedy downtown
establishments, he's also a die-hard, season-ticket-holding Jets fan.
Sony was a bully. They bullied Sega and Nintendo.
Unfortunately for them, a big fish name Microsoft decided to join the game and bent Sony over and gave them a thorough raping.
It'd be nice if Sega, Nintendo & Microsoft were to work together and push Sorny out of the market.
F*&k Sony.
I remember playing NBA2K for the first time at a friends house and being absolutely blown away. The melding between the impressive visuals, perfect control scheme and addictingly fun gameplay had me hooked. Once I got the system for myself, I spent entire giddy days outrunning that killer whale in Sonic Adventure. That Chao virtual pet minigame for the VMU was something truly visionary that is sorely lacking from the copycat, overly conservative videogame market today.
And lets not forget how great 2D games were on the Dreamcast. The DC hardware churned out countless arcade perfect fighters that stood heads and shoulders above their choppy and inferior Sony translations.
The end of the DC marked the end of and era. I would love to see Sega remerge on the hardware scene with another revolutionary and quality piece of hardware.
From Powerstone to Crazy Taxi, from Soul Calibur to Marvel vs Capcom 2, from Shen Mue to Skies of Arcadia...the Dreamcast will always be remembered as a great gaming system that died way before its time.
Here's to hoping for a return from Sega, :) I'm thinking the Sega Phoenix would be an awesome name if they were to ever come back to hardware.
The dreamcast was the perfect console, quirky japanese titles with truly western style games, it seemed to have everything in every corner of the genre pool. Online gaming, triggers for shooters, vmu, which sadly is not used anymore, windows CE for easy pc game porting.
Soul Calibur....O....Skies of Arcadia! I loved my dreamcast. My friend down the street still has his. And you know what's sad....we have all these problems with the 360 and PS3 malfunctioning and what not....his 'Cast still works (10 years strong). That's crazy.
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by madonna915
September 8, 2009 4:47 PM PDT
- isn't there a seaman for the PS3 and 360 coming soon??
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