History of the Dreamcast

[disorderlyvision]

Stumbled on this older G4 segment on you tube and thought it was interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3NfgF08 ... ure=relmfu Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e27kjhZX ... ure=relmfu part 2

[d123456]

nice vids. Never saw these. thanks.
I still cannot blame Sony, I still blame Sega, because they could´ve ported so many more of their great arcade games. How many Sega arcade games did Sega even port? Not enough.
Racing games?
-F355
-Daytona
-Sega Rally
-18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker
-Crazy Taxi
Really just 5 arcade racing games, too little.
And that goes for all other genres as well. Moar ports dammit!
And they should have marketed it more as an arcade machine in your own home. I want to travel back in time and save the DC

[8bit]

nice vids. Never saw these. thanks.
I still cannot blame Sony, I still blame Sega, because they could´ve ported so many more of their great arcade games. How many Sega arcade games did Sega even port? Not enough.
Racing games?
-F355
-Daytona
-Sega Rally
-18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker
-Crazy Taxi
Really just 5 arcade racing games, too little.
And that goes for all other genres as well. Moar ports dammit!
And they should have marketed it more as an arcade machine in your own home. I want to travel back in time and save the DC

What games did they miss/not port? I can't think of one naomi game that didn't make it to the dreamcast....

[d123456]

What games did they miss/not port? I can't think of one naomi game that didn't make it to the dreamcast....

I wasn´t talking about Naomi games perse. Just (older) Sega arcade games in general
But you do make a good point, Sega did port most of their naomi1 games to the DC.
I guess it could´ve been worse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Se ... AOMI_games
http://system16.com/chronology.php?id=1

[greg]

Let's not forget the controller. The VMU was remarkably ahead of its time, however it went through CR2032 batteries faster than my wife goes through toilet paper. On top of that, they took the Saturn analog pad (a good thing) and removed two buttons (what were they thinking?). So even though Capcom was a huge supporter of the Dreamcast, the beautiful 6 button layout on the face of the Saturn's controller was destroyed, forcing players to use the trigger buttons for the hard punches and kicks, and those buttons were analog, to boot. They really should have endeavored to keep the six buttons on the face and have two (or maybe even four) trigger buttons. I knew at least one guy who passed on getting a Dreamcast, saying that he'd rather play Capcom fighters on a Playstation console because if he had to use shoulder buttons, he may as well use a PS controller. And no, not everybody plays with fighting sticks.

The DC was actually more popular in the States than it was in Japan. Not enough RPGs, I think. Plus they should have released Sakura Taisen 3 earlier in its life than they did. Heck, Sega announced it would pull the plug on the DC in December 2000, just a few months before Sakura Taisen 3 was scheduled to be released in March of 2001. Still, I don't get quite why it failed in Japan. Americans may have been weary of a company that had once tried to simultaneously market three platforms simultaneously with the Saturn right around the corner, but in Japan, the Sega CD sold games fairly better, and the Saturn was actually more popular than the N64 for several years.

That said, I love my Dreamcast. Sega did a lot of things wrong with the hardware and its marketing, but there were plenty of great games that came out for it. I was lucky to have lived in Japan during its height, although I was rather disappointed when they announced that they'd kill the platform. It was rather premature, I think. If it wasn't for that stupid controller...

[d123456]

Let's not forget the controller. The VMU was remarkably ahead of its time, however it went through CR2032 batteries faster than my wife goes through toilet paper. On top of that, they took the Saturn analog pad (a good thing) and removed two buttons (what were they thinking?). So even though Capcom was a huge supporter of the Dreamcast, the beautiful 6 button layout on the face of the Saturn's controller was destroyed, forcing players to use the trigger buttons for the hard punches and kicks, and those buttons were analog, to boot. They really should have endeavored to keep the six buttons on the face and have two (or maybe even four) trigger buttons. I knew at least one guy who passed on getting a Dreamcast, saying that he'd rather play Capcom fighters on a Playstation console because if he had to use shoulder buttons, he may as well use a PS controller. And no, not everybody plays with fighting sticks.

As much as the standard controller sucked for fighters. It is IMHO the best (3D Saturn pad too) controller for racing games. The triggers are very precise and so is the steering, because, you got a really good grip on the dreamcast controller. I always used a Total Control adapter to play with Sega Saturn controller for fighters.

[AppleQueso]

That said, I love my Dreamcast. Sega did a lot of things wrong with the hardware and its marketing, but there were plenty of great games that came out for it. I was lucky to have lived in Japan during its height, although I was rather disappointed when they announced that they'd kill the platform. It was rather premature, I think. If it wasn't for that stupid controller...

I think this is probably why the Dreamcast didn't do so well in Japan. They liked the Saturn, they weren't ready for a new console yet.

[greg]

As much as the standard controller sucked for fighters. It is IMHO the best (3D Saturn pad too) controller for racing games. The triggers are very precise and so is the steering, because, you got a really good grip on the dreamcast controller. I always used a Total Control adapter to play with Sega Saturn controller for fighters.

I never did get one of those adaptors. The controller was great for racing though, as you said. It would've been perfect to just have six buttons on the face, and kept the analog triggers as-is. Or, possibly, have the analog controllers, and have some digital shoulder buttons too. I was living in Japan when Marvel vs Capcom 2 came out, and my neighbors/"friends" would come over to my apartment to play MvC2 constantly, and they broke the analog triggers on two controllers while playing that game. Naturally though, Crazy Taxi did not result in the same abuse.

So while the DC had some excellent arcade-perfect fighter ports, I still think I'd like to get the Saturn version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 instead of the DC version.

I think this is probably why the Dreamcast didn't do so well in Japan. They liked the Saturn, they weren't ready for a new console yet.

I think this is possible. The Saturn was losing ground to the Playstation though, so they did need to come up with something. Here's the comment I posted to the linked YouTube video:

Saturn was not a "miserable failure" in Japan. The first time I visited Japan in '98, stores' Saturn displays were larger than the N64's. The reason it failed in North America was because of Bernie Stolar's poor decision making. There were tons of great games in Japan, but IIRC he said no to them because they were 2D. The Saturn and Dreamcast were full of games that are now finally popular among English audiences. We just weren't ready for those consoles at the time.