Sega was deep in the whole. They had completely killed off support for the Saturn even in Japan where it remained popular. The year is 1997. What could Sega be cooking up? Gamers questions were answered when the Sega Dreamcast launched a year later in Japan. The launch was what some would call a disaster. There weren’t any good games available for the system within the first 6 months. What happened Sega?

Thankfully, Sega learned the errors of their ways and later launched the Dreamcast in North America on September 9, 1999. A date that was heavily promoted in their extensive ad campaign. The North American launch also had a great line-up of games including one of the greatest games of all time, earning triple 10’s in EGM(1) back in the day: Soul Calibur. Alongside Soul Calibur was Sonic Adventure and CRAZY TAXI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because it has to be typed in all caps to show how awesome it is.

Even with more stellar games coming down along the line like Jet Set Radio, Phantasy Star Online, Sonic Adventure 2 (which I personally think is an awful game), Shenmue (a cult favorite), Space Channel 5, Chu Chu Rocket, and House of the Dead 2, these were not enough to stop the juggernaut PS2 which launched in 2000 prematurely killing off the Dreamcast with fake graphics [expletive deleted](2). Now that video may look horrible by today’s standards, but you have to remember, Resident Evil 4 wasn’t around to show us what real graphics look like. Err, I mean Metal Gear Solid 4, I feel old…

I honestly never even had a Dreamcast. The first time I played was at a friend’s house in 2003. More than 2 years after the system stumbled into its shallow grave. And as you may have guessed from my previous enthusiasm in paragraph 2, my first game I played on it was Crazy Taxi! Fun game. Very fun game. The closest thing I ever got to running around in a huge city doing stuff outside of Grand Theft Auto. But back then, I had this thing against rated M titles so I wouldn’t have played it even if I was given the opportunity.

Sonic Adventure was an excellent game tape, err, I mean videogame…yeah…But I never even played it on its original console! I played the GameCube port: Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut, which was the same game with some Game Gear titles and 480p thrown in for good measure. It was also only 20 bucks at Target. So I figured, why not? My experience with that game led to some fun times and finishing the game with all characters and unlocking the final ending with Super Sonic versus Perfect Chaos! or whatever that blue thing’s name was. Sonic Adventure was also my first and only Sonic title (that I ever finished, everyone has played one of the Genesis games).

 

Dreamcast did many things. It played great games, went online for gaming (via a 56kbps modem!), had the most unique controller I have ever laid eyes on, and even had those adorable little VMUs! For those not in the know, that stands for virtual memory unit. For more information, call toll free at 1-800-SEGAVMU…or you can ignore my made up phone number and just read about it on Wikipedia.

Now, since I am very tired, I will leave you with this video that I made in memory of one of the greatest consoles ever produced:

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG8tMKgecnA 100×360]

1 No I don't have a link for that. You try linking to a magazine issue from 10 years ago! Or you can
ask Mr. Dan "Shoe" Hsu.

2 This is a reference to EGM when they censored offensive swear words in the Letters section.