Sega Dreamcast: Past, Present, and Future

Written by Ryan Smotherman on September 06, 2001

Sega Dreamcast: Past, Present, and Future: On a very special Lifetime movie event, the tragic and triumphant days of Dreamcast.

The Sega Dreamcast- easily one of the most under appreciated, yet at the same time loved systems in the history of the videogame console. You were either for it or against it, and each side had convincing arguments. For those who refused to purchase the 128-bit powerhouse, well, they have probably been burnt by past Sega blunders (Sega CD, 32X) and didn't want to risk their hard earned money on a system that they have no trust in, or they just have some unjustified hatred towards the company, it's unjustified because they are the Gods of gaming you know. As for the adopters of the system, mainly consisting of Sega fans, we had and still have more than enough reason to purchase the little white wonder.

The name really says it all, УDreamcastФ, the console was truly a dream come true, especially for all the Sega fanatics out there. The system was ingeniously designed; featuring a powerful graphics engine (still impressive even today) and an attachable modem, plus it contains one of the most widely acclaimed, original libraries around, which is really the most important part. Every genre is covered to full effect here, including a few Sega invented ones like Jet Grind Radio and Shenmue. The Dreamcast also hosted the return of many Sega classics, which includes the infamous Sonic the Hedgehog, a cute little dolphin named Ecco, and an online version of Sega's RPG series Phantasy Star. Without a doubt, the software aspect of the system is as good as any; this is of course if you take the quality over quantity route.

Oddly enough, in a gaming world where good games are УsupposedФ to be the driving force in whether or not a system sells well, the Dreamcast seems to have been shunned my the majority of the gaming public and is now on it's deathbed, the console is going well before its time. Today, I'm featuring a history lesson of sorts, in celebration of the Dreamcast's last and final birthday, I'm covering everything Dreamcast, from it's conception in the late 90's, to my predictions of where the console is headed in the not so distant future. So, sit back, relax, and take some notes; there will be a test afterwards.

The Past: Development, Release, and Games Galore
Believe it or not, the Saturn and Playstation both played a huge role in the development of the Dreamcast. As you may recall, the Playstation stomped a mud hole in the Saturn and walked it dry in the 32-bit wars (as before, too much wrestling), so Sega went back to the drawing board and asked themselves, why did this happen? Well, actually it was obvious, the Playstation was just a finer piece of technology that engrossed 3rd party companies, and the majority of its success goes to the fact that it was extremely easy to develop for, and any Saturn developer will tell you it was the exact opposite for Sega's 32-bit machine. This was really Sega's main focus when putting together their next system, they wanted an easy to develop for, powerful gaming system that would attract developers with the promise of an easy working environment and quick production time. And in all fairness to Sega, they completed this task, and then some.

Sega's all or nothing attitude was apparent from the start, they were determined to make the Dreamcast a success no matter what. This took the form in two separately designed systems. Sega went after two of the biggest graphics chipmakers in the world for assistance, NEC and 3dfx. The 3dfx system, code named Dural, was ultimately decided to be the inferior system when compared to its NEC counterpart, code named Katana. At least in Sega's eyes anyways, you would have heard differently from EA though, Sega not picking the 3dfx-designed system was their excuse for not supporting the Dreamcast (nice one huh?) Did I ever mention that I hate EA? Yeah, I though I did a coupleЕ. million times.

The Katana turned out to be exactly what Sega was looking for in its future console; the system was easy to work with and had more power than a strand of Superman's hair (okay, bad metaphor). Featuring the Power VR Second Generation chipset and the super fast Hitachi SH-4-RISC CPU, the console was well on its way to passing the current crop of consoles on the market, namely the Playstation and Nintendo 64. But ability to push over 3 million polygons a second wasn't all the system had going for it, tons of memory, a killer sound chip, a built in cooling unit, a special formatted disk drive (GD-ROM), and a 56k modem were all part of what would become Sega's master system, now all we need is a design and a name.

The name УDreamcastФ was eventually the winner in the name category, a derivative of the word УBroadcastФ, as in radio broadcast, but replaced with a dream. After countless design stages, some which could cause retinal detachment, the Dreamcast design was eventually good to go as well. And the system finally launched in its homeland of Japan in late 1998. Unfortunately for Sega, the launch wasn't what they had hoped for; mainly because it was plagued with mediocre software like Godzilla Generations, thankfully though, there were some great games available that prevented the system from being a total flop, like Sonic Adventure and Virtua Fighter 3 (a Japan favorite). In the end, the Japanese launch seemed to be rushed and brought bad karma for the system in its native land. Nevertheless, the American launch was still on, but would it suffer the same fate as its Japanese counterpart?

In a word, hell no, well that was two words, but you get my point. After a long delay, Sega finally exposed the system's release date to the gaming public, 9/9/99. A day when planet's aligned, Michael Jackson turned back black (only for a sec), and every Sega fan in North America was completely and utterly hyped up with anticipation for the new console, and the sales certainly proved it. The Dreamcast sold over 500,000 units in the first 2 weeks alone, and it continued to break records with over a million sold by November. But there was good reason for these sales: games, games, and more games. Unlike the failed Japanese launch, the American launch was choked full of classic, must own titles. Top games included a better than arcade port of Soul Calibur, one of the greatest football games ever made in NFL2K, and an improved version of Sonic Adventure. Though the launch wasn't perfect, defective disks proved quite a problem, Sega couldn't have asked for more, the system was selling like crazy, word of mouth was getting around on the system's quality, and the Dreamcast ruled the 1999 holiday season.

After the initial launch though, there seemed to be a drought of sorts, a trickle of titles were brought out, but nothing amazing was really released. This continued up until around February of 2000, then it started. The gaming Gods smiled apon us with a constant stream of amazing Dreamcast titles, it all began with Crazy Taxi, then Dead or Alive 2, and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Into the Summer saw such titles as Sega GT, Virtua Tennis, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, and many, many more. November of 2000 was probably one of the greatest months ever for video-gamers, Skies of Arcadia (one of the best RPG's ever), Shenmue, Tony Hawk 2, and Jet Grind Radio among others were some of the best games ever made, and they were all released in the same month for the Dreamcast. Sega also launched their now defunct SegaNet online gaming service in September, with that came NFL and NBA 2K1, each considered two of the best sports games ever created.

So, as you can see, the quality software was definitely there, and most gamers noticed, Dreamcast sales were brisk and the shortages of the tremendously hyped PS2 only helped Sega's cause during the holiday 2000 season.

The Present: More Games, Big Announcement, and Cheap DC's
For the sake of this article, I'm classifying the present as everything 2001- Now, got it? Good. The Dreamcast opened up the new year with a barrage of online games, including the highly anticipated Phantasy Star Online, Daytona USA, and Unreal Tournament. Phantasy Star was the star of the show though, it is the first console MMORPG ever, plus it was based off Sega's highly acclaimed series. It's just too bad horrible news came with its release. On the same day PSO shipped, Sega announced plans to pull out of the hardware business and become a 3rd party developer. This was heartbreaking to Sega fans, and it basically pulled the plug on the console, at least for the majority of DC developers, who quickly cancelled countless games and high tailed it out of there. But Sega pledged their full support for the Dreamcast until March 2002, and Sega has stuck by their word, which has resulted in the Dreamcast's alive and kicking feel.

Although Sega's stunning announcement turned many 3rd parties away, the games kept pouring in, and to this day you'll see some blockbusters hitting store shelves. Two of the biggest sequels ever made were released just this summer, in Sonic Adventure 2 and Crazy Taxi 2. And even more recently, many high profile Dreamcast games were released, including Alien Front Online, WSB2K2, Floigan Brothers, and Outtrigger. Showing that even though the Dreamcast is down, it certainly isn't out.

As of late, the big news on the Sega front has been the recent Dreamcast price drop, in their need to empty out the warehouses of Dreamcasts, Sega felt the best approach would be to practically give the machine away with a $20 price reduction, and it seems to be working. Not only that, but also most DC games, old or new, go on average between $10-20. So purchasing the system is a no-brainer for gamers looking for a cheap, quality system. The drop has put Sega on the fast track when it comes to ridding themselves of the remaining units.

The Future
The Dreamcast is slowly, but surely losing steam worldwide. Only about 15 titles are left for release in the states, but as always, they include such top-notch games like Bomberman Online and NFL 2K2. And after Shenmue II's release in December, I wouldn't expect much more out of the system besides a title or two, especially not past March 2002.

But the system will leave quite the legacy behind. The Sega Dreamcast revolutionized gaming in a variety of ways, but most importantly is what the system did for console online gaming. It basically made a reality out of an otherwise PC dominated feature, and it will become the staple of all future consoles, just as an example, every current next gen console (GCN, PS2, and Xbox) has online components in some way or another. Everyone bow down to the mighty Dreamcast now.

Another way people will look back on the system is in the fact that in only two short years an unimaginable amount of quality, must own software was released. It's just insane, no system has ever been the home of so many worthwhile games in such a relatively small period of time, it's really going to make the future generation of gamers wonder why the system wasn't the huge success that it should have been. Additionally, I feel as if the system reestablished Sega's name, after the multiple console failures people felt as if Sega had lost their edge, but the Dreamcast made Sega's name stand for quality once again, and it will really show when their games are top sellers on the new consoles.

One last thing to note is that this will more than likely be Sega's last piece of gaming hardware. In saying that, it will have a special place in the heart of hardcore Sega fans, like myself, for a long time to come. But there is always a glimmer of hope that Sega will get back into the hardware biz once they reclaim their once immense fortune, and if and when that happens, I hope they name the new console the УDreamcast 2Ф (okay, that name sounds lame, but you get my point).