DC G.O.A.T.? For real?!

[RackGaki]

To be honest, the Sega Dreamcast didn't interest me as a console until long after it died. Ikaruga was the first Dreamcast game that caught my eye, and a system that required zero mods to boot hombrew, backups, and emulators brought a smile to my face.

There are too many faults in the Dreamcast to give it a Greatest title. One analog stick, poor VMU battery life, no hard drive, no DVD support, mixed third-party support, etc. But now, you can buy a Dreamcast in good condition and you can have hours of entertainment for less than $20 (you got ripped off if you paid more than that - my last two have been $20). Best $20 any gamer could possibly spend. Well, that and the $20 50-pack of blank CD-Rs.

I would give the Dreamcast the honorary title of best postmortem console.

[Doctor Fugue]

^You and I are living on different planets, my friend. No Hard Drive? The DC was already discontinued in the States before the hard drive for the PS2 was even introduced in Japan, and 3 years before it was available in the States. Some of the things you say betray your viewpoint as someone looking back and wondering why SEGA couldn't do things differently and more like modern media-center consoles (which I admittedly find to be a disturbing trend). Gee, the Neo Geo doesn't have a hard drive or analog sticks so it sucks too!

On the controller - Without 6 buttons on the face, it becomes a hassle to really take advantage of the wonderful 2d brawler library... the small, barely rollable d-pad only makes matters worse, and the lack of a 2nd stick is seriously limiting as well. (FPSs... forget about it) Although it doesnt bother me that much that the cord comes out the bottom, it is way too short. Other than those issues, which I consider to be quite serious, it IS quite comfy to hold... and works fine for many games.

Agreed about 6 face buttons, that upset me. But really, nobody plays those games without the Agetec stick, do they?

[The Apprentice]

Although it doesnt bother me that much that the cord comes out the bottom, it is way too short.

How can it be too short?

Just as a quick experiment, I layed out the Genesis 3 button, Genesis 6 button, Saturn pad, 3D pad, and Dreamcast controller, and they were all the same length!

[ZenLogikos]

There are too many faults in the Dreamcast to give it a Greatest title. One analog stick, poor VMU battery life, no hard drive, no DVD support, mixed third-party support, etc. But now, you can buy a Dreamcast in good condition and you can have hours of entertainment for less than $20 (you got ripped off if you paid more than that - my last two have been $20). Best $20 any gamer could possibly spend. Well, that and the $20 50-pack of blank CD-Rs.

No offense, but this is a poorly thought out argument. As Fugue said, you're applying current console standards to one which came out in 1999. WTF?

One analog stick - irrelevant...the standard at the time was one control input, and the games were programmed accordingly

Poor VMU battery life - irrelevant to most...and not entirely true. What percentage of owners do you think used the vmu as anything other than a memory unit? Did you know that the battery is drained while plugged in when the system is off? Unplug the VMU when your DC is off.

No HDD - irrelevant...see anaolg stick

No DVD - irrelevant...again

Mixed third party support - The only major publisher absent was EA, and that only matters in the US.

BTW, I'm not even a Sega fan. I admit I do love the Dreamcast though, from day 1, for all the reasons Fugue stated. It's the only Sega console I own, although I used to own a Genesis. I was never impressed with any other Sega system.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

There are too many faults in the Dreamcast to give it a Greatest title. One analog stick, poor VMU battery life, no hard drive, no DVD support, mixed third-party support, etc. But now, you can buy a Dreamcast in good condition and you can have hours of entertainment for less than $20 (you got ripped off if you paid more than that - my last two have been $20). Best $20 any gamer could possibly spend. Well, that and the $20 50-pack of blank CD-Rs.

No offense, but this is a poorly thought out argument. As Fugue said, you're applying current console standards to one which came out in 1999. WTF?

One analog stick - irrelevant...the standard at the time was one control input, and the games were programmed accordingly

Poor VMU battery life - irrelevant to most...and not entirely true. What percentage of owners do you think used the vmu as anything other than a memory unit? Did you know that the battery is drained while plugged in when the system is off. Unplug the VMU when your DC is off.

No HDD - irrelevant...see anaolg stick

No DVD - irrelevant...again

Mixed third party support - The only major publisher absent was EA, and that only matters in the US.

BTW, I'm not even a Sega fan. I admit I do love the Dreamcast though, from day 1, for all the reasons Fugue stated. It's the only Sega console I own, although I used to own a Genesis. I was never impressed with any other Sega system.

Uh I can understand the no HDD but DVD was starting to take off and w/ Sonys PS2 right around the corner an addon should have made it out (suprising, an add on Sega could have used for once) and the 1 analog stick I agree w/. The PS1 had dual-shock long before DC came out. Otherwise I agree w/ u.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

On the controller - Without 6 buttons on the face, it becomes a hassle to really take advantage of the wonderful 2d brawler library... the small, barely rollable d-pad only makes matters worse, and the lack of a 2nd stick is seriously limiting as well. (FPSs... forget about it) Although it doesnt bother me that much that the cord comes out the bottom, it is way too short. Other than those issues, which I consider to be quite serious, it IS quite comfy to hold... and works fine for many games.

Overall, I agree with a good deal of everyone's comments. For the most part, I think I fall somewhere between Paul and The Doc. I love many of the exclusive games, homebrew, and NAOMI conversions... and that is no delusion! I have to say though, that the esoteric value probably does increase the size of my mouth and strength of vocal cords a bit - sort of along the lines of what Paul had to say.

While we're at it, here is my admittedly biased fav. five, in order:

5. XBOX
4. SNES
3. Neo Geo
2. DC
1. Saturn

5.Jaguar 4. Jaguar 3. Jaguar 2. Jaguar 1. jaguar jaguar JAGUAR

lol no id say something like this

5. Gamecube
4. Dreamcast/Saturn
3. Playstation
2. Playstation 2
1. Playstation 3 (because it can play all 3 Playstations (60gb anyway) and emulate dreamcast and saturn provided u can actually find an emulator for yellowdog that will work, i assume that anyway. =D

[ZenLogikos]

Uh I can understand the no HDD but DVD was starting to take off and w/ Sonys PS2 right around the corner an addon should have made it out (suprising, an add on Sega could have used for once) and the 1 analog stick I agree w/. The PS1 had dual-shock long before DC came out. Otherwise I agree w/ u.

The DVD format came out in 1997. DC in 1999. PS2 in 2000. Sony was aiming for a console set-top box situation, so the inclusion of DVD for movies was important to them. Most games for PS2 continued to be produced on CD-ROMs, (which hold less than GD-ROMs of course), for a couple years. So it's importance to gaming for the Dreamcast's lifespan is negligible. I agree though that considering all of Sega's ill-fated add-on's, this would have been the best decision.

[Zer]

There are too many faults in the Dreamcast to give it a Greatest title. One analog stick, poor VMU battery life, no hard drive, no DVD support, mixed third-party support, etc. But now, you can buy a Dreamcast in good condition and you can have hours of entertainment for less than $20 (you got ripped off if you paid more than that - my last two have been $20). Best $20 any gamer could possibly spend. Well, that and the $20 50-pack of blank CD-Rs.

No offense, but this is a poorly thought out argument. As Fugue said, you're applying current console standards to one which came out in 1999. WTF?

One analog stick - irrelevant...the standard at the time was one control input, and the games were programmed accordingly

Poor VMU battery life - irrelevant to most...and not entirely true. What percentage of owners do you think used the vmu as anything other than a memory unit? Did you know that the battery is drained while plugged in when the system is off. Unplug the VMU when your DC is off.

No HDD - irrelevant...see anaolg stick

No DVD - irrelevant...again

Mixed third party support - The only major publisher absent was EA, and that only matters in the US.

BTW, I'm not even a Sega fan. I admit I do love the Dreamcast though, from day 1, for all the reasons Fugue stated. It's the only Sega console I own, although I used to own a Genesis. I was never impressed with any other Sega system.

Uh I can understand the no HDD but DVD was starting to take off and w/ Sonys PS2 right around the corner an addon should have made it out (suprising, an add on Sega could have used for once) and the 1 analog stick I agree w/. The PS1 had dual-shock long before DC came out. Otherwise I agree w/ u.

...
DVD wasn't really starting to take off yet. It existed, that's about it. It just wasn't cheap enough back then to work to Sega's advantage. And I don't think a addon would have even been realistically possible, I don't think the serial port is fast enough and back then online gaming was the Dreamcast's selling feature, using the modem/bba slot would have pretty much required that the DVD addon have a modem also, bringing the cost even higher.

Personally I think one way the Dreamcast could have done much better would be to push it's release a few years ahead, around the time of the PS2, so DVD would be easier to implement effectively. But that could kill it all together, since the Dreamcast would pretty much be fighting a 800-pound gorilla with no practice.

[glynnahab]

DC =GOAT? It is great but nah, I *heart* the SNES.

I'm with you on this one. As much as I enjoy the DC, the SNES will always be my favorite console. This era was the prime of my gaming days. My little bro had the Genesis, so there was a mini-console war within our house.

Until I discovered this forum last year, I had never owned a DC, and rarely ever played one. You guys have shown me the light - even tolerating my annoying questions regarding DC Emu and homebrew. I agree with the comments about the controller, though. It just seems a bit bulky for my taste.

[Niode]

1. Playstation 3 (because it can play all 3 Playstations (60gb anyway) and emulate dreamcast and saturn provided u can find an emulator for yellowdog =D

Erm. No it can't? Both Yabuase & Ixdream require GL and a compatible graphics card. Since the GPU is locked out on YDL you won't get very far at all.

Honestly, do you just pluck things out of your ass, say them on here and genuinely believe them to be true?