SEGA Dreamcast Was Released Ten Years Ago Today in Japan

[parallaxscroll]

It's November 27th in Japan now, which means it's the 10th anniverary of Sega Dreamcast's release. I cannot believe it's been ten years.




Although the Dreamcast was not exactly the console from SEGA that I had wanted and had been expecting from 1995 to 1997 after the Saturn came out, it was still an awesome system. What I really wanted though, was a next-gen Saturn 2 that used PowerPC CPU and a Lockheed Martin Real3D GPU allowing Sega to painlessly bring upgraded ports of MODEL 2 and MODEL 3 arcade games home. This is what was widely expected during 1995-1997 as I said. Read the following article closely if you have any interest at all in the history of the never-fully developed Lockheed Martin co-designed Saturn 2 which was scrapped once Sega got deeper into the development of Black Belt and Katana prototype consoles.




Sega made the second-best decision regarding the graphics tech used in Dreamcast.

Lockheed Martin (would've been the best choice) who was Sega's partner for the 3D tech in Sega arcade boards, would not be doing the graphics for the new console. This bit of news came as a shock to some people in early 1997, those of us who followed Sega's in-development console very closely.

Instead, Sega used the best consumer PC based 3D tech they could find at the time. NEC & Videologic PowerVR second generation (PVRSG) aka PowerVR Series 2. A custom version of it was designed for Sega (PowerVR2DC aka CLX2).

SEGA built the Dreamcast on the SoJ-designed PowerVR2-based Katana prototype instead of the SoA-designed 3DFX-based Black Belt prototype. 3DFX had beaten out Lockheed Martin to provide the graphics for SoA's design (Black Belt) for the new Sega console, but SoJ's design (Katana) was the winner of Sega's internal competition by July 1997. Katana was named Dreamcast in May 1998.

Dreamcast was the first console of last-generation, the first console to have arcade-level 3D graphics, the first console to have INTERNET-based online gaming (not the first to play games over the phone lines), and set the standard for console games last-gen before PS2, GCN and Xbox arrived.


Even after it was officially 'killed', games continued to be released for Dreamcast years after, only coming to an end this year.

Happy Birthday Dreamcast, you won't be forgotten.

[Seik]

I don't believe it's been ten years. I couldn't possibly have done this little with my life in the span of ten years....could I?

Wow I find that really unbelievable. Especially since I still regularly play my Dreamcast. For my money, it was my favorite system ever, and the one system I'd take with me to a desert island (if given the choice of ONLY one system).

Incredible. Alright everyone, time to feel even older. Commence.

[A Robot Bit Me]

Happy Birthday Dreamcast, you won't be forgotten.

With so many anniversaries in the past few months alone, I couldn't even if I wanted to!

[SpoDaddy]

I've still got my DC hooked up for SF3 and SSF2TX (although HD Remix probably nixes that one). What games are you guys still playing on DC?

[Changeling]

The shooters are the only reason to keep it around these days. Under Defeat is so damn awesome. There are a couple other games that I play through from time to time ( Record of Lodoss War!!!) but the fighters on the system have been replaced. Also, the gaming industry learned some valuable lessons regarding piracy by Sega's mistakes. I know its typical to say and well known among these circles, but the DC was so ahead of its time. If Sega wasn't so ass-retarded during the sega CD/Saturn era, we may still have Sega consoles to play on today.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Also, the gaming industry learned some valuable lessons regarding piracy by Sega's mistakes. .

???

[A Robot Bit Me]

What games are you guys still playing on DC?

Under Defeat

[Anal Kaboom]

???

So not true I'm living proof of that!

[Seik]

I'll frequently play a lot of fighters on the DC, that in my eyes, HAVEN'T been replaced yet. SFIII and Garou being two of them. Also stuff like MVC2 and Tech Romancer.

I'll play Bangaioh and Record of Lodoss War. Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II are about due for a replay as well.

And of course the shooters, Ikaruga, Mars Matrix, Gunbird 2 etc.

Also Crazy Taxi. And I'm probably forgetting some other arcade games like that.

I dunno, Dreamcast has so many games that just plain stand the test of time. The graphics are good enough and clean enough, that I don't think they look dated, and more important than that, most of the games are easy to pick up and play whenever.

I've got two Dreamcasts hooked up to two different TVs in my house and it's been that way for 10 years now (different TVs tho). I don't see that changing anytime soon.

[SpoDaddy]

Oh yeah, Project Justice was awesome too.