Any video game site you’ve looked at this past week probably contains some tribute to Sega’s beautiful console swan song, the Sega Dreamcast.
And what a song it was. Dreamcast ushered in a generation of online console games by being the first one to launch with a modem in the hardware. Phantasy Star Online was an breakout title for the system with many devoted gamers that stayed with the game well after the console’s death. Dreamcast’s online component would not meet competition until Xbox Live launched 3 years later. Which by that time, the system was a year dead. (I was one of the few people to play Phantasy Star Online the game when it launched on Gamecube and I loved it. It was far too addicting not to waste weekends playing and, boy, did I.)
My personal memories with the system were short, because, well… I remember feeling it was a bit early for a new generation of consoles to launch and I had just bought an N64 2 years previous. Fortunately for me, these feelings were not present with my closest friends and I was able to mooch precious hours on the system for free.
Since we were young and poor, the first one of my friends to get the system only managed to get one controller with one VMU. His first game was Crazy Taxi and we had hours of fun playing passing around the controller, trying to beat each other’s score, and thinking that The Offspring was the God’s gift to video game music. And that game set the standard for what kind of games I should expect from the Dreamcast: colorful, fun, and communal games that anyone can enjoy without any sort of elitist entrance fee.
Tower Records so upset from the news of Dreamcast’s death followed suit soon after.
Dreamcast’s game mantra permeated the next game on the system I met. Even though I had already invested so many hours into the original Smash Bros., and my entire mind set at the time was that no company can compete with Nintendo’s game design, Powerstone was the most fun I had had with a fighting game. This was especially important because I had always strayed from fighting games because my friends were so punishingly good at them they persistently would leave me with my tail between my legs. Powerstone was the first fighter that really balanced the controls (while some may think they were too simplistic) and gave gamers of little experience a level playing field with the fighting experts.
Despite everyone’s allegiances to certain consoles, I haven’t met anyone yet who didn’t have anything but a good time playing the Dreamcast. If video games are really all about getting together with your friends and having a good time, then Dreamcast was were it was at.
RIP Dreamcast 1999-2001.
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