A Decade Of Dreams

Ready to feel old? Exactly 10 years ago today, a number of you were crowding around analog televisions in bedrooms, dorms, and basements to ogle and prod Sega's latest--and as it turned out, last--console, the Dreamcast. Too small a number, I guess, since Sega announced it would cease production of the console barely a year and a half later.

But hey, wasn't it was a great console while it lasted? We thought about going all long-winded nostalgia on you, but Peter Moore did a better job with a nice history lesson already. Instead, we decided to simply pick out a few of our favorite Dreamcast games and record some Quick Look videos. (Nine, in fact, for 9/9/99, you know?) These aren't necessarily the best DC games ever, they're just nine that we remember fondly. Soul Calibur was pretty amazing back then too, for the record.

OK, first hit is free! Let's go with that terrifying fever dream of a puzzle-action game from Sonic Team, ChuChu Rocket.

 

• Sonic Adventure
• Crazy Taxi
• Jet Grind Radio
• Shenmue
• Samba de Amigo
• The Typing of the Dead
• Virtua Tennis
• Power Stone 2

I did not own a Dreamcast, as I was about 6 when it came out. I wasn't exactly big into games. But I can say I'm incredibly jelous I missed out on Chu-Chu Rocket. That game looks god damn insane. 
 
And I was really surprised by Virtua Tennis, that game looks great.

I miss my dreamcast....not sure where exactly where's my dreamcast, but i truly remember the great moments we shared

LCD games on  the Dreamcast memory cards. Not particularly fun, and seemed to drive up the cost of memory. 

My older brother sold off our Dreamcast for some cash.  POOOOR QUUUUEEEEE!!!
 
I may purchase another one soon though to play through the "must-play" titles that I have missed.

Zu-wb-wb-wb-BWAHH!!!!!! 
 
 
I miss the Dreamcast. Their sports lineup was incredible, and the original Soul Calibur is still a classic.

What a machine.
 
I miss the Dreamcast, lots.
 
Imagine if the Dreamcast was on a ten year cycle?  
 
We would just now be getting our hands on the next Sega console...
 
Very surreal.

Power Stone 1 + 2 were my favourite Dreamcast games.
 
First console that I played proper multiplayer on.

I loved my dreamcast. Sadly after a few months it developered a wierd video problem where it looked like the right side of the screen was bleeding white light (and bending the video in the process) onto as many TV's as we could try (and nothing else we owned did it). My mum sent it back to Sony many times during the 1 year warrenty and it always came back with the same problem. After the warrenty was up I think she just binned it :( Even though I protested.

I always have a soft spot for that system, I loved (and still play it on PC) Sonic Adventure, PSO (though until  Blue Burst I never played it online), Slave Zero, Gunbird (a shooter which released in some places as Mobile Light Force with no game changes but a crappy charlie angels style picture on the front that had nothing to do with the game) and a few others.

I so no need to buy one again and build up a new collection of awesome stuff.

Shenmue was such an amazing game to play. That was definitely a highlight. The modem too. Loved playing the shooters online even with small groups.

i remember when Jet grind radio came out and how i was blown away by its game-play and soundtrack
it was the 1st game soundtrack i ever bought.
 
oh and i almost failed high school over Phantasy star online...... man great times!!!

 My favourite Dreamcast game was probably Fur Fighters. Though for a console with such a short life it's a close run thing.

I remember being to young to care about the dreamcast when it first came out. After all, I was like 6 and pokemon was socially acceptable. Do the math. 
 
Still, it's interesting to see a console that people remember fondly despite it failing.
 
EDIT: Brad, you forgot the most important video of all. 
 

Dude I'm loving the Dreamcast content today. My personal favorite Dreamcast game is Soul Calibur.

I was also about 6 when it came out, but I have played one and I must say, seriously one of the greatest consoles ever. Even if my experiences with half of its classics are with re-releases on other consoles, they're truly magnificent games. Just the Capcom fighting games alone are all worth dying for. One game I wish would get more attention around here is San Francisco Rush 2049. The multiplayer in that game is so fun.

The Dreamcast is 10?
 
Last time I checked, it died when it was 2 or 3 years old.

For hardcore gamers, I cannot think of a better system than the dreamcast. I have over twenty games for that system, and all were incredible. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Soul Calibur, MVC 1 and 2, Jet Grind RADIO, and Shenmue are only a few. Plus, most of these games completley reinvinted their respective franchises. All of these featurettes on websites are there for a reason; the dreamcast was incredible for its time. For those who missed out? I can only say sorry to you.

I never owned a Dreamcast or really played one for that matter. Every time I saw it in the store, I walked right by it because I knew my hands were to small to fit on the controller comfortably.

I never owned a Dreamcast. I was only 10 years old when it came out and I never even knew it existed until I went into the school library one afternoon and one of my friends was playing NFL2K on it. I hate football so I didn't play it. Other than that day I've never seen a Dreamcast in real life.

ALL CHU-NITS!

NO SEAMAN QUICK LOOK?! ARGH!

I got my Dreamcast by trading my cousin a drawer full of Beanie Babies for his DC and all his games, straight up.  Best trade I ever made.
Spent so many hours playing Phantasy Star Online, Grandia 2, Skies of Arcadia, Soul Calibur, MvC 1 and 2... So many memories, man.

My favorite memory of the dreamcast was playing MVC 2 all the damn time as well as Power Stone 1 and 2.  Such a great system for multiplayer games.

Best commercial ever

loved the dreamcast. electronics boutique had a deal: trade in 10 playstation games and a ps1 console, and get a dreamcast for $50. i asked my buddies for old games they didn't want, paid them $5-$10 for each one and traded in a ps1 console i got for free.  
 
the nfl2k series were my favorite football games. i spent hours those, capcom games (mvc2, resident evil: code veronica, capcom vs snk2), jet grind radio, doa, and space channel 5. besides having a clunky controller, the games had a certain quirky style of their own, and the memory card with screen was a cool touch.

Not surprising, no NFL 2K1, the reason I bought the console. Love you guys none the less.

I love that Chu Chu Rocket commercial so much.

quick look throwback is a good idea. DO it more. My memories for DC are playing tons of quake 3 and unreal tournament online,also sonic adventure and Resident evil:code veronice. The games are awesome and tons of fun.

We played hella Soul Calibur at work.... that Voldo, he haunts me.

hahahahahah, Chu Chu Rocket is still incredibly fun and funny, even when you're just watching other people play it.
 
On a side note, love Brad's silent afirmation: "somehow... I'm winning?"

All these quick looks makes me wish the dreamcast lived on. Games would be so different.

 

"

I have absolutely loved this DC tribute, but where is the Seaman quick look?

I remember skipping my college classes on this day 10 years ago to go buy my Dreamcast  and being so excited to get home and play Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure and NFL 2K that I got a speeding ticket on the way home.  It was worth it though as the Dreamcast is possibly my favorite system ever.

The Dreamcast was the first and only console I've ever pre-ordered. I don't remember why I did it. I just got caught up in the excitement, I think. I have a lot of fond memories of Dreamcast games. The highlights of which include downloading code for extra-bouncy boobs in DOA2 and playing through RE: Code Veronica with the lights off in my apartment.
I ended up giving away my Dreamcast and all associated games in the Winter of 2002 by leaving them in a cardboard box in the hall of my apartment building. It was snatched up in less than an hour. I hope that whoever took it actually wanted to play it and didn't just run off with it to a used game store.
I did, however, hold on the the Dreamcast t-shirt that came with the system. It's still one of my favorite articles of clothing.

I can't think of a console that had a better 2 year span than Dreamcast...  I know I've never since bought so many games in just a 2 year span.
 
Jet Grind Radio, Crazy Taxi, Q3A, UT, MDK2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, NFL2K, Toy Commander (a personal favorite), Alien Front Online, RE Code Veronica, Rush 2049, Ooga Booga (online battle action!), Powerstone, Soul Calibur, Outtrigger... and those are just those I can think of offhand. Well, I didn't mention PSO which I wasted way too much time on (in a good, positive way). And of course Chu Chu Rocket. Awesome game.
 
The only game I didn't like was Shenmue. Sorry, but I just didn't get it I guess.

" I can't think of a console that had a better 2 year span than Dreamcast...  I know I've never since bought so many games in just a 2 year span. Jet Grind Radio, Crazy Taxi, Q3A, UT, MDK2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, NFL2K, Toy Commander (a personal favorite), Alien Front Online, RE Code Veronica, Rush 2049, Ooga Booga (online battle action!), Powerstone, Soul Calibur, Outtrigger... and those are just those I can think of offhand. Well, I didn't mention PSO which I wasted way too much time on (in a good, positive way). And of course Chu Chu Rocket. Awesome game.  The only game I didn't like was Shenmue. Sorry, but I just didn't get it I guess. "

I came shockingly close to buying a dreamcast just days before Sega pulled the plug. I really wanted to play Resident Evil Code Veronica and some of the other big dreamcast games. Then they announced that Resident Evil Code Veronica would be on the PS2 and I decided to wait...phew

I currently own an unopened Dreamcast, and kinda wish I didn't buy it merely for the collector's sake, because I've got a copy of Shemue, and am now dying to try out a few of the games I've seen on these quick looks, as well.  Namely, Chu-Chu Rocket, Typing of the Dead, and Virtua Tennis. But really, I figure I'd only be playing them for the novelty of it, and it isn't worth going to all the trouble of tracking down copies of them. Or is it...?..................
 
Since I skipped from the NES + Genesis to a Gamecube, I missed out on a lot of console action. I was always a PC gamer, growing up where money was kinda tight :\

I played 4 player tag battle DOA with my friends, played Shenmue with my girlfriend (she LOVED it), played 4 player powerstone with 2 other friends and their DAD, etc etc. 
 
It was a very social console before consoles were what they are today. All my friends have fond, priceless memories of laughs and fun playing that noisy, small, quirky, beautiful thing. 
 
I own like 2, and have friends that own like 4. Most of you bough a spare one just in case yours died. It was that close to our collective hearts. 
 
You have no idea how much I preached the Dreamcast gospel to so many people, people blinded by empty promises of the upcoming PS2.  Then when it finally came out, and Tekken Tag Tournament looked like ass and the backgrounds were odd and paralaxing and fake, everyone forgot that the Dreamcast had much better looking and PLAYING games ever since its launch, years before.  It took the PS2 a long time to reach the Dreamcast in terms of actual quality and game catalog.   
 
The thing is, I doubt that Sega will be at that position ever again. They are doing interesting things with western developers these days, but the days of the quirky fun games we saw back then, are long gone.  Studios disbanded, Yu Suzuki doing other things, etc.  Things had aligned perfectly during that era.
 
 I think of how sad that makes me, and I can't bear imagine how sad it made Sega back then, and I'm sure, now.  
 
To exagerate a little, at least the Dreamcast will always be in everyone's heart.

The Dreamcast was released just a few weeks before I started college.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get one when it launched, and I remain Dreamcast-less to this day.  However, during my years in college, particularly those first two years, I often played Dreamcast games in the campus's anime club office with some of the other regulars, including Soul Calibur, Chu Chu Rocket, and other classics.  One guy even brought in his modded Dreamcast and an import copy of Shenmue.
 
The times that I spent playing games in the club office hold a special place in my heart.  Coming from a small town, there weren't too many people that I could game with regularly, but being around that crowd, and being able to play so many fun games with them, was something that I'll fondly remember forever.
 
Even my memories of sucking horribly at Space Channel 5.

I never had a Dreamcast, I can't say I missed out though because the few games that drawed any intrest to me I played in a arcade or when it got ported to the Gamecube. Though I did enjoy looking at all these quick looks with all these insanely crazy japense games.

" @ArbitraryWater said:

 

"

I love Jeff's great pick-up line of "there's even some girl boxers in this game so..." "
 
LoL  Jeff ages really well , i can imagine Jeff when he's 80 years old  looking just like he does now and going " alright , time for a new episode of Persona 4 , were in dungeon number 248 , this is the janitors assistant nephew dungeon "

A decade of dreams? You know what that means....NIGHTS VIDEO!!!