Sega Dreamcast

[Tommy Thunder]

It wasn't really the N64, it was the PS2 launch that knackered it.

I wouldn't say it was that either. It was just the fact that Sega had massive debts and had to stop investing in some departments. The games console department, mainly the investment in the Dremcast, was one of the departments that they decided to cull. Because of the debts they weren't able to invest enough into the Dreamcast to be able to compete with Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.

They're still developing games software and games though.

[Wade Barrett 1979]

I wouldn't say it was that either. It was just the fact that Sega had massive debts and had to stop investing in some departments. The games console department, mainly the investment in the Dremcast, was one of the departments that they decided to cull. Because of the debts they weren't able to invest enough into the Dreamcast to be able to compete with Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.

They're still developing games software and games though.

Dreamcast sales went up 156% from July to September '00. PS2 had a bigger impact than many realise, so said Bernie Stoler apparently.

Plus as I stated before, Sega put off a lot of 3rd party developers with the Saturn, who all jumped allegience to Playstation which was extremely easy to develop for. Dreamcast was done nearly 11 months before the Xbox was released.

Mainly the new Sega Chairman wanted a concentration on software too.

[Wade Barrett 1979]

There were a tonne of great shmups for Dreamcast, if you're into those sorta games. Ikaruga and Gigawing come to mind as being especially awesome.

My Dreamcast model could read games that were burned onto a CD-R(*), so I actually used the console sporadically well into the late noughties. I know there were still homebrew games and arcade ports being released for the system as late as 2009, but I'm not sure if the whole DC community is quite as active as it once was.

Nonetheless, my fondest memories of the Dreamcast is playing Chu Chu Rocket online, which I managed to get for free by logging onto the Sega website. The console was also my first shot of the internet as well, since our family computer didn't have a modem at the time. I remember going onto the in-built chatroom and being confused about why I was being called an a/s/l.

(*) - All or most of the earlier models could, I believe. It was before they changed the colour of the spiral from orange to blue, or something like that? I don't really remember how it works. I discovered it by complete accident though.

The spiral colour was territory dependant; Orange for Japan, Red for North America and Blue for PAL regions.

[HeelTurn]

Wasn't the PS2 the best selling console of all time? If not its got to be one of the highest.

Shenmue, as good as it was, helped gain Sega some insurmountable debts.

[Viperfish]

Dat Shenmue... mmm. I remember renting it and being totally blown away with it. Had to buy it even though I beat it in the week that I rented it. Then I bought an import copy of the European release of Shenmue 2 when it came out... easily the best version of it by far as it had the original Japanese voicing, plus English subtitles. As awesome as the series is, the English voice acting is atrocious. I even have the Xbox version of Shenmue 2.

EDIT: Quick shot of my baby.

[Asherdelampyr]

I loved the dreamcast and when it was discontinued it made me sad
though I did not care for the controller design.

[Wade Barrett 1979]

Wasn't the PS2 the best selling console of all time? If not its got to be one of the highest.

Shenmue, as good as it was, helped gain Sega some insurmountable debts.

Yup still is, just. About a million or so units ahead of the DS.

[Tommy Thunder]

Yup still is, just. About a million or so units ahead of the DS.

We're surely not counting the DS as a console are we? To me it's a hand-held console, which is a whole different market IMO.

[Asherdelampyr]

Yup still is, just. About a million or so units ahead of the DS.

and they are still selling.

[Tommy Thunder]

and they are still selling.

The PS2 is a beast of a console. I'm so glad that I've taken care of mine so that it's still in pristine condition!