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[Metal Khaos]

Was a great system at the time with lots of great games and out of the box online. And unlike PC I've had at the time, virtually no lag with anything. Then you got all the great games and arcade titles.

Soul Calibur
Marvel vs. Capcom 1-2
Grandia 2
Phantasy Star Online
Shenmue 1-2
Sonic Adventure
Powerstone
Capcom vs. SNK 2

 

[Schweinehund]

Solid first party titles, one of the best controllers and online play for me.

 

[Journey]

As a dreamcast fanboys back in the day, MGS2 and GT3 looked a generation ahead of anything on dreamcast Graphically. Dreamcast is one the most over rated systems of all time here on neogaf, it had a few great arcade ports, and sonic games which were fun for there time, that's about it.

Not only were those games years late into the generation, and engines and programmers had already gotten into their stride, but there's is zero evidence to prove these games wouldn't be possible if attempted on the Dreamcast hardware. The console suffered from lost support.

If the same thing happened to the 360, it would only be assumed that the PS3 was truly twice the power if one could only judge by initial 360 games like GUN, CoD 2, Full Auto, etc. If fact, in an alternate universe where Gears of War was exclusive to PS3, the impression of power difference would be hugely in favor of PS3, so it's not really fair to judge with games that were released after the Dreamcast was already off the market.

PS.
GTA3 graphics is nothing to write home about, you're probably remembring bullshots in your head, but actual gameplay wasn't anything the Dreamcast couldn't do:

This is the best comparison I could think of agains GTA3 since Shenmue is, I think, open world:

 

[E-phonk]

I payed 200 euro for a dreamcast with a bunch of games including Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Soul Caliber, Echo The Dolphin, Skies of Arcadia, Sonic Adventure, Marvel vs Capcom 2 and resident evil from a guy who wanted to have a PS2 instead. Think it was early 2001 right after they announced their departure as a console manufacturer.

 

[MrCunningham]

I literally bought my Dreamcast on day one during launch and still have it and all of its games. To be honest, the Dreamcast wasn't without it's problems and I think the build quality of the machine wasn't quite on par with the Sega Saturn in some respects.

But the Dremacast was Sega's last big hurrah as a first party developer, it was ahead of its time and forward thinking upon release, and it did have a pretty incredible library of games for its short life span.

This was the first console to include a modem built into the machine for online gaming, it was the first to support 480p through VGA output, the machine was quite easy to develop for, unlike the Saturn. A lot of arcade ports ran at a rock solid 60FPS. This is the first home console to not make 3D games look like jittery or blurry low resolution messes. The console had so much weird quirkiness to it as well, the fishing controller could double as a tennis racket or be used as a sword controller in Soul Calibur.

The Playstation 2 did completely wipe the floor with the Dreamcast in terms of raw polygon performance and even had some nice shader like effects. But the Dreamcast actually did have a larger texture cache and could put out nicer looking textures, it also produced a better looking image quality.

It was an awesome little console.

Why is the start button on that controller round in the OP? My controllers have an upside down triangle. Is that a proto controller!?

OP linked an image to a pre-release prototype of the system. I think that was close to final design.

Are there any jRPGs for this thing other than Phantasy Star?

I've been itching to pick up a dreamcast lately

This is one area where the Saturn does better than the Dreamcast. I don't think the Dreamcast was out on the market long enough to really build a great RPG library, outside of Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II. EGG is suppose to be worth looking into though and I have seen it appear on some peoples top 10 lists for this system, but I have never played it. There is Shenmue I and II (It was called a "Free RPG" by Yu Suzuki). There is also Evolution 1 and 2, I own the first one and have never played the second one... these are so-so randomly generated dungeon crawlers.

 

[gelf]

Uh, Nights wasn't on the Dreamcast.

It's weird how often this misconception that Nights was on Dreamcast comes up. I've seen this mistake repeated many times over the years. I don't see other Saturn games mistaken for DC releases quite so much.

 

[The Mattress Mack]

I really like the Dreamcast, a lot of it's games had a really nice aesthetic that I enjoyed like Cosmic Smash.

 

[Hyrule Warrior]

The Dreamcast's life cycle was about as long as we are into the PS4 and Xbox One's life right now, and it had dozens of great games before it was discontinued. Think about that, I feel like a lot of people are still waiting for the really great games on current gen systems, but within the same time frame, Dreamcast owners were loving soo many great games already, many of which were unique to the system. If that is not worthy of a beloved fan base, I don't know what is.

 

[Lucumo]

It was the last Sega console and people who bought it felt it still had a ton of potential.

Yep, it's a shame the console was never able to show it all.

 

[Vorg]

The bolded was pure hype imo. The PS2 didn't blow anything out of the water, in fact the initial PS2 games were really disappointing and it took a good year before the PS2 started kicking some ass. Dreamcast had AAA titles right at launch, Soul Calibur received numerous perfect 10s and the 2K sports series were excellent and imo better than Madden.

Graphics wise, games like Dead or Alive 2 and Soul Calibur looked every bit as good, if not better than Tekken Tag Tournament, which actually suffered from some pretty bad, or rather lack of AA, and even the revamped Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore wasn't that much of an upgrade, and in comparisons showed cleaner edges on the Dreamcast, Metropolis Street Racer demolished Ridge Racer V graphically, again the game suffered from jaggies. So it was neither power nor games demolishing anything from what I remember, it was more due to the hype, the sold potential and the DVD drive, which just like Blu-ray last gen, cemented the format.

Heck I even believe that if the Dreamcast was supported long term, visually it would still be capable of some sweet graphics that would have rivaled the PS2, and at a time where Nintendo had a more powerful GameCube, and the beast that was Xbox in terms of pure horsepower, the Dreamcast would have had a fair chance if Sega wasn't already strapped for cash after all the royal screw-ups.

I'm a big fan of soul calibur but at the time tekken tag tournament really did look much better. It did not look aliased at all and honestly, it looked better than anything on the dreamcast in terms of character modeling and lighting. Yes, even Dead or Alive 2.

The bouncer also looked insane in terms of character modeling and way ahead of any dreamcast game. That one did have heavy aliasing issues though. I only had a dreamcast at the time and remember going to a friend's house and being blown away by how great those games looked.

Soul calibur still had much better animation though.

The ps2 was just more powerful.

 

[ss_lemonade]

Is the OP's image a shot of the dreamcast when it was still called Katana (or Blackbelt)? I remember reading an early magazine article about it and it had the same controller with a circle-shaped start button.

 

[Agent_Carnage]

PSO,Sonic Adventure 1 and 2,RE Code Veronica,Soul Caliber and a host of amazing underated titles.

 

[Shadoken]

It was a console that was actually very good but died because of Segas past mistakes and not its own.

 

[takoyaki]

The Dreamcast was one of the last consoles before PC and console games started to become one thing with the Xbox. It's the last console with a big focus on old-school arcade-style games.

A console with 10-20 "Splatoons" released on it, depending on your taste. Unique looking games with a focus on fun gameplay above all else: JSR, Powerstone, Crazy Taxi, Bass Fishing, Space Channel 5, Samba de Amigo, Soul Calibur, House of the Dead 2, Zombie Revenge/Dynamite Cop, ...

At least that's the reason why it's my favorite console. That, and Shenmue

People growing up right now will remember the WiiU similarly, the "unfairly overlooked underdog".

 

[bodeiseifer]

It was the last console that epitomized the play-at-home arcade experience.

This!
Though it also probably contributed to the death of the arcade

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

Sold me on the spot.

To this day, nothing in gaming has ever impressed me like the jump I saw in these visuals for the first time.

 

[FlashFlooder]

Two words:

HYDROOOOOO THUNDERRRRRRR

 

[Stallion Dan]

Loads of great exclusive games, and they all released so fast.

Most ended up on other systems eventualy, but not all and not always as good.

 

[kess]

It's pretty impressive how good the library is without support from EA, Enix, Square, and outside the launch period, only tepid support from Namco, Taito, and Konami.

It's pretty crazy Sega was releasing as many games as they were, many of which never made it to the West, or left the arcades. A DC port of Planet Harriers would have been amazing.

 

[Daingurse]

Do any of you folks still play your Dreamcast?

Or is this a eulogy thread?

It's been a minute since I've last played mine, but it's still hooked up via VGA box to my TV.

 

[Phediuk]

Last of its kind in a lot of ways.

-Last Sega console.

-Last console where arcade ports made up a major portion of the library.

-Last console made entirely within the old Japan-dominated industry.

-Last console made before the online gaming community exploded.

and so on.


And then there was Sega's extraordinarily prolific output during this period; they were publishing more games in a year than Nintendo does in 5.

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

Sonic Adventure, 2, Powerstone, 2, and PSO

With those classics I also had this Spawn game that I ADORED. I can barely think of many games I had more silly fun with. Man, now I really want to play again.

Oh, and Makken X. That game was weird but had Shin Megami Tensei art so.

 

[MrCunningham]

Is the OP's image a shot of the dreamcast when it was still called Katana (or Blackbelt)? I remember reading an early magazine article about it and it had the same controller with a circle-shaped start button.

No, it was officially called the Dreamcast at that point. That prototype appeared in magazines and trade shows a few months before the Japanese release of the console, so it was very close to a final design. If I remeber correctly, the first prototype that was shown publicly in magazines, was this model here:

Sega didn't announce the Dreamcast name yet when they were teasing the above image so press was still calling it Dural or Katana.

 

[rallaren]

First 128 bit consloe, vmu, I tried Crazy Taxi at a game store and it was awesome. End of story.

I got CT for the PS2 years later but it wasn't the same at all.

 

[nintendork666]

Best Dreamcast game. Also Grandia II.

 

[Rolf NB]

Piety / not speaking ill of the departed. Most people just completely avoid the conversation, leaving only the superfans to circle-wank.

 

[kess]

Too bad as soon as SNK left their comfort zone they went out of business. The NGPC was a great little handheld, and Dreamcast games like Cool Cool Toon pointed towards the direction they might have been able to take.

 

[jay]

The Dreamcast represents the last era of Sega making games as they used to. Awesome arcade stuff and also deeper, longer games without much of an eye on what the market would react well to. Things like Chu Chu Rocket, Roomania, Seaman are moderately to very out there. With the end of the DC (and more specifically the purchase of Sega) came the end of an era of Sega as many of us knew and loved them.

Apologies to modern Sega fans who take the position the company is still great and little has changed.

The library itself was also great, that helped. Small but a lot of interesting and fun games.

Piety / not speaking ill of the departed. Most people just completely avoid the conversation, leaving only the superfans to circle-wank.

Yeah, that's it.

 

[DidntKnowJack]

Two words:

HYDROOOOOO THUNDERRRRRRR

That was my first DC game. God I love HT so much.

 

[kamineko]

Piety / not speaking ill of the departed. Most people just completely avoid the conversation, leaving only the superfans to circle-wank.

Some love it for the threadshitting opportunities, apparently

 

[Nights87]

Phantasy Star Online.

Spoiler

Honestly don't know if ANY of the Dreamcast games are worth playing in 2015. Most of them are improved with future versions or ports to Xbox, etc. PSO is a pretty "out-dated" experience by today's standards. Soul Calibur II is arguably a better game, some may still prefer SC1.

lol some people still love that damn Shnume game. It also fits with what I said in spoilers... its outdated and not fun by today's gaming standards.

Rubbish. I played shenmue last year and it was fantastic. "Not fun by today's gaming standards"? What does that even mean? I don't even get how you can say that considering fun is a completely subjective term.

 

[Journey]

I'm a big fan of soul calibur but at the time tekken tag tournament really did look much better. It did not look aliased at all and honestly, it looked better than anything on the dreamcast in terms of character modeling and lighting. Yes, even Dead or Alive 2.

The bouncer also looked insane in terms of character modeling and way ahead of any dreamcast game. That one did have heavy aliasing issues though. I only had a dreamcast at the time and remember going to a friend's house and being blown away by how great those games looked.

Soul calibur still had much better animation though.

The ps2 was just more powerful.

Again, if Ryse: Son of Rome was compared to most PS4 games, most could make the case that Xbox One is more powerful, but that's just not the case. Also, I'm not saying the PS2 doesn't have more raw horsepower than the Dreamcast, but lets face it, it's not blowing it out of the water which is what I'm posting against.

More powerful? on paper and after years of learning the architecture? yes. Considerably more powerful? nope, in the same league to the point of the Dreamcast had continued support and if we had the equivalent of today DF comparisons, I think we would have seen pluses and minues from either side as the Dreamcast was not only easier to program, but had more Vram to work with.


Here are direct grabs of TTT



I don't see how anyone would say those visuals are better than this:

 

[GrayFoxBH]

Dreamcast is the console I had most fun with. Still have one. Great library of games, online support, excellent hardware for the time, among other things.

 

[jonno394]

Here are direct grabs of TTT

I assume you've noticed your error as you've removed them lol. Were they Tekken 1?

 

[Daingurse]

I assume you've noticed your error as you've removed them lol. Were they Tekken 1?

Hahaha, yeah I was about to say myself. Looked like one of the PS1 Tekken games.

 

[ShowDog]

The Dreamcast is beloved on GAF because most people on GAF actually play games. Haters back in the day were your mainstream goofs that mostly watched commercials and thought the PS2 was "cool" (and it was).

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Piety / not speaking ill of the departed. Most people just completely avoid the conversation, leaving only the superfans to circle-wank.

Nobody on gaming forums actually like platforms with good libraries.

 

[Brandon F]

One of the best libraries of console history.

Never thought it was possible anyone could look down on it.

 

[Ceadeus]

Because I found thé system at thé time to be unic with its arcade Feel. Thé games were often 60 frame second with aliasing. There was interesting gadget like thé VMU's, keyboard or even à mic wich was new à thé time. Then internet play, like phantasy star online. In short, i like it better than thé ps2.

 

[Queen of Hunting]

power stone
skies of arcadia
grandia 2
spawn in the demons hand
shenmue

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Great arcade ports and a bunch of weirdass janky first party games people love for some reason. I give them a lot of credit for just going weird on their death bed but NiGHTS, Shenmue, Sonic Adventure etc are not very well made games, honestly.

You can get most of it's best games on other systems.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

At the time, I was a die hard Sega fan, so a Dreamcast was a no brainier in 9/9/99.

It was beloved because it was the last time we saw Sega's full breadth of its talent on one hardware. Sega had many amazing teams which specialized in a genre, AM2 was for arcade-y games, Overworks was the RPG team, Sonic Team was sonic, etc.

The unfortunate part is that once the hardware was discontinued, Sega didn't need to develop a huge breath of genres and games. Many of us naively though that Sega would be the biggest third party on the planet with the amount of talent. That's also why I am dead set against Nintendo going third party since we saw what happened to Sega.

So at least for me, Dreamcast was a great console because it was the last time we saw Sega being Sega.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

I get why people loved the Dreamcast back in the day. However, now most of the library is available in better form on more current systems. And in fact, one of the few main reasons to get a Dreamcast, Grandia 2, is getting an enhanced PC version soon (there's an old PC version & a PS2 version but those are both bad ports).

For best exclusives that haven't since been ported, I think the Saturn is easily the top Sega system.

 

[Bl@de]

Piety / not speaking ill of the departed. Most people just completely avoid the conversation, leaving only the superfans to circle-wank.

Sorry but this. If it had so many great games and all that stuff it would've been succesful. But it bombed. It bombed harder than any other system. It maybe had a couple of great games but that's not enough. Every system has great games. Now it's basically nostalgia from some fans and nobody else talks about it.

 

[Stereogatari]

Quirky Japanese library.

 

[Conezays]

Remember picking this up on 9/9/99 A variety of great games, including online games that were good (like PSO), a cheap price, and more, made it a great console.

 

[Recall]

Outtrigger
Giant Gram
Giant Gram 2000
Fire Pro Wrestling D
Skies of Arcadia
Marvel vs Capcom 1
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Capcom vs SNK
Last Blade 2

It isn't about the graphics because I don't care about how something looks but how it plays and the games on the system I love the most play wonderfully.

This whole justify why/I don't understand fad is really unusual. I don't need validation in the things I enjoy or how I enjoy them.

Sorry but this. If it had so many great games and all that stuff it would've been succesful. But it bombed. It bombed harder than any other system. It maybe had a couple of great games but that's not enough. Every system has great games. Now it's basically nostalgia from some fans and nobody else talks about it.

And?

 

[FonkyByNature]

The Dreamcast is beloved on GAF because most people on GAF actually play games. Haters back in the day were your mainstream goofs that mostly watched commercials and thought the PS2 was "cool" (and it was).

Haha, i remember being the only guy in the block with a Dreamcast and i remember i made so many Playstation fanboys jealous. They were all like "i'm gonna wait for the PS2..." and tried to downlplay the graphics but the look on their faces told me everything...

Still love my Dreamcast, there's just so many good games on it it's crazy ! Quality stuff !

This thread made me a little sad the real SEGA isn't here anymore. I miss their franchises, their hardware, crazy ideas etc.

 

[Journey]

I assume you've noticed your error as you've removed them lol. Were they Tekken 1?

Yea, those were too horrible even from memory lol. It's so damn hard to find any good quality direct screen grabs of anything from that gen, I'm still looking!

 

[kess]

At the time, I was a die hard Sega fan, so a Dreamcast was a no brainier in 9/9/99.

It was beloved because it was the last time we saw Sega's full breadth of its talent on one hardware. Sega had many amazing teams which specialized in a genre, AM2 was for arcade-y games, Overworks was the RPG team, Sonic Team was sonic, etc.

It was even better than that because Sonic Team was still independent enough to create things that weren't Sonic games, platformers, or sequels. Chu Chu Rocket, Samba De Amigo, Phantasy Star Online were all great games.