The Sega Dreamcast Thread

[TrekMD]

Just watched this video and thought I'd share it:

[align=center:2toxd815]Video Game History Month - Sega Dreamcast[/align:2toxd815]

[DreamcastRIP]

The two words from that video that for me best summed up the Dreamcast: Innovative and Fun. 

[Rogue Trooper]

4 words for me:Dreamarena, rich textures and...Beeeeeeeeeeep!!!!! powering up with VMU with dead battery inserted in the controller.

Man, watching that video and the talk of the sheer amount of money on day 1 of trading in USA makes you wonder how console ever bombed so badly (long term) again'st the PS2.

Guess no amount of quality software could compete again'st the sheer hype of 'power' of PS2 and f**king with E.A was not recomended.

:-) Some odd fashion choices in that video mind....

[TrekMD]

It just goes to show what marketing can do.  It makes people believe in something even if it has lower quality than something else in the market competing in the same space.

[Rogue Trooper]

It just goes to show what marketing can do.  It makes people believe in something even if it has lower quality than something else in the market competing in the same space.

Amen to that statement:you throw enough money, talk enough meaningless talk about what your system can do, next to that of a rival system, even when said system not only has a far stronger line up at E3, but is showing what it can do with actual games, not tech demo's..then by god you've won the marketing war.

It's only then the arrogance really sets in and as a company you get complacent, let your rivals steal your thunder the generation after........

[guest4826]

Dreamcast, easily one of the best consoles ever produced and one of the lat game systems. No weird hybrid stuff and whatnot. It was weird for me earlier this September knowing that 14 years ago I was in line at Toy's R' Us to trade in all my Playstation stuff to get one. I still don't regret the trade as it was much more worth it to me as most Playstation games are a dime a dozen anymore. The Dreamcast has so many excellent experiences on it too. I know that some of them have been ported to other systems, but let's be honest, the ports aren't always that good. Crazy Taxi and Rez are great examples of this. Just sad really that it went down the way it did. Still one of the best systems ever. Laird, if you haven't gotten one yet, you should man. Just a great experience all around and did exactly what it was supposed to do unlike all the crap Sony said the PS2 would, and sadly, didn't do.

[DreamcastRIP]

Re: Rez on DC and PS2,

PS2 version:

- 60 fps
- 'jaggies'
- poorer quality textures relative to DC version

DC version:

- 30 fps
- Nicer, i.e. smoother-looking, than PS2-looking visuals due to relative ease of utilising hardware-based anti-aliasing
- superior quality textures than PS2 version

I've both versions and, imo, it's a subjective thing as to which is 'best'. Some may prefer the smoother frame rate of the PS2 version whereas others may prefer the otherwise superior quality visuals of the DC version.

Rez HD on Xbox 360 aside, the 'cheating' option would be to play PS2's Rez via the PS2 emulator PCSX2 with all graphics settings maxed out to a level far in excess of what a PS2 itself could produce... provided you've a gaming PC powerful enough to do so of course.

[guest4826]

Re: Rez on DC and PS2,

PS2 version:

- 60 fps
- 'jaggies'
- poorer quality textures relative to DC version

DC version:

- 30 fps
- Nicer, i.e. smoother-looking, than PS2-looking visuals due to relative ease of utilising hardware-based anti-aliasing
- superior quality textures than PS2 version

I've both versions and, imo, it's a subjective thing as to which is 'best'. Some may prefer the smoother frame rate of the PS2 version whereas others may prefer the otherwise superior quality visuals of the DC version.

Rez HD on Xbox 360 aside, the 'cheating' option would be to play PS2's Rez via the PS2 emulator PCSX2 with all graphics settings maxed out to a level far in excess of what a PS2 itself could produce... provided you've a gaming PC powerful enough to do so of course.

I do like REZ HD for the 360. It was done very well and runs so buttery smooth. I just didn't care for the look of the PS2 version.

[Rogue Trooper]

I own both a PS2+DC (well couple of DC's) and whilst things like Ecco and MDK 2 have had the difficulty level issues adressed on PS2, MDK 2 espically looks far rougher, as it was designed around DC graphics card and Ram, but then you would'nt see something like God Of War on DC...but of the 2 the PS2 had the sheer advantage's of developer support and massive installed user base, meaning developers in the main stuck with it, whilst Sony sorted out the tools they needed to get best from the complex hardware and overcome the limited Ram (though good few jumped ship to Xbox).

The Dreamcast never had that in it's favour, sadly with DC projects being canned left, right and centre, (DC Half-Life code ended up being used in PS2 version etc).I'd loved to have seen just how far the DC could have been pushed, but also a few of the canned ports:Alien Res. and Warzone 2100 from PS1, System Shock 2 from PC etc.

Folks sadly only seemed to wake up to just how powerful the Dreamcast actually was, after it had 'died' at retail.Know a lot of people who said they'd wished they had one when it was launched...

Still great to see it's fondly thought of to this day....

[Rogue Trooper]

Dreamcast, easily one of the best consoles ever produced and one of the lat game systems. No weird hybrid stuff and whatnot. It was weird for me earlier this September knowing that 14 years ago I was in line at Toy's R' Us to trade in all my Playstation stuff to get one. I still don't regret the trade as it was much more worth it to me as most Playstation games are a dime a dozen anymore. The Dreamcast has so many excellent experiences on it too. I know that some of them have been ported to other systems, but let's be honest, the ports aren't always that good. Crazy Taxi and Rez are great examples of this. Just sad really that it went down the way it did. Still one of the best systems ever. Laird, if you haven't gotten one yet, you should man. Just a great experience all around and did exactly what it was supposed to do unlike all the crap Sony said the PS2 would, and sadly, didn't do.

Just to add some balance, Sega were a little, ahem over optimistic at times with the claims on DC....they had to retract the 'All DC games will run at 60 fps' statement early on and the online claims went south pretty swiftly, but compared to the utter B.S Sony came out with, drop in the ocean....

Sega, for all it's flaws at least learnt lessons from it's own mistakes in terms of hardware design:Made system powerful, easy to use, with hardware A.A and enough Ram to allow developers to do what they wanted to do with the system.The VMU and online console gaming were ideas ahead of their time, a gamble yes, often the potential was ignored by developers, but full credit to them for trying something different.

Pity the DC build quality was'nt all that..went through numerous models due to the resetting issue, hence owning 2 now, but Dc was the last console i owned that really made the industry feel alive once again.

Now it all seems to be hardware that also plays games.....

:-(

[davyk]

The reset problem is very easily fixed - only requires use of a screwdriver - plenty of videos on youtube.

[Rogue Trooper]

The reset problem is very easily fixed - only requires use of a screwdriver - plenty of videos on youtube.

I got plain sick+tired of unscrewing DC casing, tweaking prongs so they made contact, putting it back together etc.The solution was doing the rounds in DC mags at the time, as soon as it became apparent just how big an issue it was.

It was still poor design on Sega's part.

[davyk]

Yeah - it's a pity it seems to have been poorly built - I'm sitting with my fingers crossed with mine.

The drive life is my biggest worry about the DC.

[guest4826]

I guess I have been lucky, thus far, as I have never had the resetting issue with any of my Dreamcast systems. Only issues I have ever had are dead systems due to the Laser being dead or the drive being worn out. Then again, maybe if more people stopped playing pirated Dreamcast discs, perhaps there wouldn't be the huge issue. I like the idea of the SD Adapter as for homebrew it's an awesome idea. Sadly, I generally don't see it being used for that as most people seem to be more than happy to just use it for Piracy. Dan Loosen is one of the guys that will tell you that 80% of what killed the Dreamcast in the end was Piracy. It's also one of the reasons that us in the US never got REZ or Shenmue 2, and who could blame Sega? Why make the effort to release the games here if they are already on the Internet for free and getting tons of Downloads? It's one of the Reasons Sega was more than happy to move Shenmue 2 to the XBOX in the US. Very sad for people like me who had been drooling over the game too. Same with Head Hunter as well.

[Rogue Trooper]

Scud Race tech demo on Dreamcast

Only ever got as far as a 'Tech.Demo' shown behind closed doors in Sega Japan sadly (and Sega claimed reason it never got converted was because Dreamcast was a new start for the company, so needed new games-err, so how do you explain VF3 getting converted for launch then Sega?), but here's DC Scud Race...