Dreamcast: A Forensic Retrospective Comments by Dan Whitehead

Ryze

Whoa Son!

I don't hate MS (only Sony ;-)). I owned both xbox 1 and 360, and thought they were very capable machines. I just don't think the 360 is the main successor to DC.

My contention is that Nintendo now hold the torch for Videogaming. It's nothing to do with hating MS.

MS have made PC 'type' gaming mainstream. Whether thats a good or a bad thing depends on your point of view.

As for me talking Bollocks.... yeah, I can't deny that I do a lot of the time. Peace.

before i was a nintendo fanboy - i was a sega fanboy.. heck i guess i just love good games!

as for ps2/dreamcast comparision..

Look at shemue.. the ps2 just couldnt do that - even if it tried it's hardest.

The PowerVR2 graphics chip in the DC was good, but it had a lot of limitations. Calling it superior to the PS2 is a bit of a push in my estimation as although it was better than the EE+GS in some ways it was a long way behind in others.

The tile-based rendering system that was PVR's specialty was very fast and efficient in its day, but lacked fill-rate compared to every other graphics technology. On the other hand the GS was all fill-rate and very few bells and whistles in texturing terms. Chalk and cheese really.

I find it very doubtful that the DC could have equalled GoW2 for example, and quite honestly in the long run the lack of a DVD based storage solution would have really hurt. If you think of the number of discs titles like D2 and Shenmue were stretching to so early on in the console's life, it has to be said that the DC was always going to have problems with really big, data-heavy games.

For example I can't imagine GTA working with disc swaps between zones. DVD was a smart move on Sony's part.

@Smelly

Have you seen Yakuza 2?

@ N.A.T.O

:D

Just bought my 1st Dreamcast from eBay for £26.

Zero_Cool, bless him. Really not the sharpest tool in the box.

"Just bought my 1st Dreamcast from eBay for £26."

Awesome news Ryze a few have picked one after these articles. Mine was £45 inc p&p but it did have two vmu, a few games and a wheel :)

Just don't outbid me on any games on eBay! I've got a few coming with mine but I'm like a kid checking out eBay seeing what games to buy on pay day, good job it's all quiet on the current gen front.

I've still got my DC wired up with the VGA adapter and crack out the odd game from time to time.

I've also got 2 lightguns, 2 steering wheels, 2 sets of marracas (one set official), a keyboard, mouse and fishing rod.

That shit aint going anywhere near ebay. ;)

@ SpaceMidget75

Yeah my one died but if it hadn't I'd still have it. I'd love to get HOTD2 and some guns but they'd be useless on my LCD :(

Can't wait to play one again though (just gotta get some dial up of all things!) I'm like Cartman waiting for the Wii :)

/ Goes into mountains and freezes himself for 3-4 days

N/A: You've taken that quote out of context and so your argument of is of little relevance to me.

I see Calgon is typically spouting his usual anti-Sony rhetoric. Poor lad really needs to get some reality on his perspective.

@varsas
I meant the mainstream gaming community at the time. I think their arcade games only had any major appeal in arcades themselves, on consoles they where too easily dismissed as short shallow experiences. But I'll always take a short pure fun focused Sega Rally to a bloated GT.
Aside from the Arcade output a lot of the games where too quirky and different to appeal. I couldn't explain what made Jet Set Radio so good to anyone.

All these articles have made me miss Sega Consoles. I'm pretty much a PC gamer these days since this generation moved away from more arcadey stuff leaving the only games I wanna play being mainly the ones that are probably best played on the PC anyway.

Rash': "N/A: You've taken that quote out of context and so your argument of is of little relevance to me."

Oops, my bad, I now understand what you meant.

/feels stupid

Sega came pretty close to putting a DVD in the Dreamcast instead of it's 'GD-ROM', which would have made some difference. I always felt if it had been able to play DVDs instead of having a modem, it would have worked out better.

Aside from Sega Europe's risible and misdirected marketing efforts, it really didn't help that the press totally fell for the PS2 hype pre-launch. What was the Edge PS2 cover... '70-something million polygons and counting'? Yeah, right!

Ultimately, for all I loved the Dreamcast, the games were too niche. People actually didn't want arcade conversions (sorry Rev Campbell, you're wrong on this one); after five years or so of Tekken on PSone, they wanted something 'new'. Sony's talk of 'Emotion Engines' promised a new dawn in gaming, of games with a little more depth to them, and I believe that somewhere among all the hype, that's what we eventually got with things like Ico and GTA III.

"...with most gamers opting to wait for the sure-to-be-awesome PS2, with its mysterious "emotion engine" and games that would literally emerge from the screen and fellate you senseless."

That marketing campaign didn't last long before being banned...