Interesting Dreamcast Tid-Bits And Stories

[mlavindude]

Rev 2: Final revision of the console, common but not as abundant and the rev1 unit. The internals are the most radical of all revisions and its build quality is of a... dubious reputation. Proceed with caution

And yet the last revision was still more reliable than many of the original Playstation and Playstation 2 hardware models.

Tru dat

[ExedExes]

I bought the Pal version of Shenmue II on Ebay shortly after it was announced that the US release would be on the XBOX. Both websites were around for a number of years prior to that as well.

Incidentally, although Shenmue II is my favorite game of all time, I think the boot disc I used to play it killed my Dreamcast. It'd had a rebooting issue since 2008 or so, which I tried at one point to fix by cleaning the PSU pins, but that didn't seem to do anything, so I stored it until a year or so ago, when I realized that there will probably never be a better system than the DC, and that I needed that thing working again.

I believe the same thing was what happened to my DC. I had gotten the PAL Shenmue II right at the start of the new year and a couple weeks after completing it my unit would no longer start any games up. Opened it up, made sure the motor didn't burn out, did all the stupid tricks on Youtube w/ the laser potentiometer, etc. and no good. Ended up getting a replacement on eBay that actually has an older manufacture date than my first unit. (late 1999 vs. Feb 2000)

But keep in mind 1) The older DC I had for 10 years prior, and 2) I have a Japanese import DC game for almost the same length of time that never was a problem for the boot disc.

I've read stories about how much of a strain Shenmue II puts on the console due to the sheer amount of data on those discs and the way it was arranged on them though. I'm glad I got to experience it (and have it) noneoftheless.

[pierrot]

I believe the same thing was what happened to my DC. I had gotten the PAL Shenmue II right at the start of the new year and a couple weeks after completing it my unit would no longer start any games up. Opened it up, made sure the motor didn't burn out, did all the stupid tricks on Youtube w/ the laser potentiometer, etc. and no good. Ended up getting a replacement on eBay that actually has an older manufacture date than my first unit. (late 1999 vs. Feb 2000)

But keep in mind 1) The older DC I had for 10 years prior, and 2) I have a Japanese import DC game for almost the same length of time that never was a problem for the boot disc.

I've read stories about how much of a strain Shenmue II puts on the console due to the sheer amount of data on those discs and the way it was arranged on them though. I'm glad I got to experience it (and have it) noneoftheless.

Wow, that's pretty fast turn-around on killing your rig.
Mine is the same Feb 2000 manufacture date. I can't remember the exact timeline, but I believe it took a couple years before the rebooting issue started happening. After I finished Shenmue II, I think it was a bit more rare that I was playing the DC anyway, but initially the rebooting was fairly infrequent, and worsened over time.
When I was working on it again last year, I only encounter the rebooting issue a couple times, but as I tested more games, it started progressively loading garbled data (especially with Sonic Adventure 2) and laboring quite a bit while loading 3D models and things, until eventually it just stopped loading games all together. Sad day.
I also tried the potentiometer fix after that, to no avail.

Anyway, it's interesting to know that I'm not the only one who encountered this. I wonder if it's actually a matter of boot loading Shenmue II, or just something to do with the Feb 2000 production line.

[dust_hound]

I recently bought Snow Surfers, new, but unboxed, from ebay. It shipped tightly crammed into a plastic case with its manual, and i unthinkingly just pulled the disc out when i got it, resulting in a huge scrape across the reading surface, rendering it unplayable. I polished it with Silvo (the Brasso equivalent for polishing silver, and now it looks like i'd never scratched it at all, and it plays without problem.

[robbievgb]

I pre-ordered my Dreamcast at Toys R' Us way in advance (maybe April or May?) I saved up all summer doing chores and mowing my gramma's lawn for the Dreamcast, an extra controller, a VMU, and three games (gosh that was a hefty chunk of change!

On 9/9/99 my mom took me out of school at lunch time and we drove up to the store to pick it up. I ended up getting Sonic Adventure, NFL 2k, Soul Calibur and my mom pitched in for a fouth game, Pen Pen TriIcelon (I wanted to have a fun multiplayer game). She took it home an dropped me back at school.

I had to wait what seemed like an agonizing 2 and a half hours to get home and unbox everything. Still the only system I've ever bought launch day.

[ExedExes]

Anyway, it's interesting to know that I'm not the only one who encountered this. I wonder if it's actually a matter of boot loading Shenmue II, or just something to do with the Feb 2000 production line.

That is, and it could suggest an issue with perhaps those units, but for now, I won't be playing it for a while so I'll be just fine

[CD AGES]

I pre-ordered my Dreamcast at Toys R' Us way in advance (maybe April or May?) I saved up all summer doing chores and mowing my gramma's lawn for the Dreamcast, an extra controller, a VMU, and three games (gosh that was a hefty chunk of change!

On 9/9/99 my mom took me out of school at lunch time and we drove up to the store to pick it up. I ended up getting Sonic Adventure, NFL 2k, Soul Calibur and my mom pitched in for a fouth game, Pen Pen TriIcelon (I wanted to have a fun multiplayer game). She took it home an dropped me back at school.

I had to wait what seemed like an agonizing 2 and a half hours to get home and unbox everything. Still the only system I've ever bought launch day.

She took you to you outta school to pick up your Dreamcast during lunch time!?
Your. . . Mom. . . is. . .a. . . BOSS!

[bacardipr05]

Not funny or anything. But back about 2 months ago i was painting. Afterwards during the clean up. I found a Dreamcast unit in a old cabinet that we used as a sort of hamper. That was really falling apart and i was about to throw away. Now i already have 3 other dreamcast units. My original launch (which laser is dying) and 2 other units. I have no idea where this other mystery unit came from. This unit probably has been there for about 10 years or more. It has some dragon ball stickers on it. Its like my brain remembers something about a dreamcast with stickers but cant make the link.

[jay_red]

I pre-ordered my Dreamcast at Toys R' Us way in advance (maybe April or May?) I saved up all summer doing chores and mowing my gramma's lawn for the Dreamcast, an extra controller, a VMU, and three games (gosh that was a hefty chunk of change!

On 9/9/99 my mom took me out of school at lunch time and we drove up to the store to pick it up. I ended up getting Sonic Adventure, NFL 2k, Soul Calibur and my mom pitched in for a fouth game, Pen Pen TriIcelon (I wanted to have a fun multiplayer game). She took it home an dropped me back at school.

I had to wait what seemed like an agonizing 2 and a half hours to get home and unbox everything. Still the only system I've ever bought launch day.

Awesome Story, I cant imagine how hard it was to make it though the rest of school!

My first experience with the Dreamcast was at my uncle's house, he got one right around launch and I remember playing the Sonic Adventure demo, I could not believe that a game could look that good. I was blown away at the graphics, like jaw on the floor. I knew I had to have one, but had no income (was way too young for a job). I ended up having to wait a year or so before I got my hands on one, I spent plenty of time playing my friends though, even buying my own games in anticipation of getting my own console.

I read through Game Pro Magazine always going to the Dreamcast section to see the games I would want, reading about Shenmue put it at the top of my list of games to get. Finally Christmas came around and I found my very own Dreamcast under the tree with Shenmue and Starwars Jedi Power Battles, I also had my own copy of Jet Grind Radio already. Sadly I learned quickly after that of the short lived glory of the Dreamcast, the only good thing to come out of that was I was getting games from EB games for crazy cheap.

Like many here, the Dreamcast is still my favorite console, I have so many memories with it, and I will always have one hooked up ready to play.

[8bit]

Fun Fact: There was huge defect in the manufacturing process of the launch run of Sonic Adventure resulting in thousands of defective copies.

I was one of the lucky guys going back and forth back and forth from my local GameStop trying to get a copy to work.