Dreamcast launched 15 years ago today.

[bash]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/9/6126153/sega-dreamcast-peter-moore-anniversary

Heres a copy paste of Peter Moores Facebook entry:

Once again, I trust my employers here at EA will allow me the indulgence of reminiscence and nostalgia on this day, 09/09/14, the 15th anniversary of the launch of the Dreamcast here in North America on the wonderfully numerically-correct date of 09/09/99. It certainly doesn't feel like fifteen years have gone by since this innovative console ushered in the era of online gaming, albeit through a 56K modem, and thus changed the face of interactive entertainment forever. The memories of course are bittersweet - we all know how this movie ended - but I was fortunate to have worked at that time with some of the most amazingly dedicated individuals, all of whom were galvanized around a single goal: prove the naysayers wrong, launch the console with a bang, get to a meaningful installed base within the first twelve months, and keep the momentum going in the face of the upcoming stiff competition. We still get together as a team from time-to-time, and oh the stories we tell. Lots of coulda/shoulda/woulda, but primarily pride in our accomplishments and the legacy we firmly believe can be seen and felt in gaming to this day.

With the Dreamcast's online capabilities, we coined a phrase "We're taking gamers where gaming is going". In our heart of hearts, we worried that we would not be there for the entire journey, but it was with great pride that with our Sega Sports games in particular, that we ushered in the era of connected interactive entertainment. I don't think it is an overstatement to say that the Dreamcast and it's online network laid the ground for what we all take for granted today - online game play, linking innumerable gamers from around the world to play, compete and collaborate, as well as enabling new content to be delivered in addition to that which was delivered on the disc. Rarely does a week go by where I don't bump into somebody that fondly reminisces about this wonderful piece of hardware and the great times they had (and are still having!) playing some of its superb games. So as we all enjoy everything the next generation of hardware has to offer, give a tip of the hat (or glass) this evening to The Little Console That Could. The Sega Dreamcast...

I fooking loved that machine, even if current gen could just go back to the acceptable level of loading times for games . . . .

[Lebowski]

I have a dream............

.......cast

[charlesr]

Heheh, cool pic.

Moving facebook entry.

[doodledude]

I don't expect EA minded about Peter moore's post, I don't reckon they knew what he was going on about, what's a Dreamcast? Ironic that his current employer was a big reason which hurt Dreamcast's perception amongst the gaming community.

I loved the a Dreamcast as it was the first console I ever bought and got me into gaming although by the time I'd bought it, it was already on its last legs. But I was a skint student when it launched so beer was more important!

[speedlolita]

Dreamcast was what got me into import gaming - some time around 2007! Late right? Mainly due to the fact that I was able to play shady copies of games - given that I'd never had a modified console before.

I'll never forget loading up Third Strike and being blown away by how much better it was than Zero 3.

[Kit]

I'm down to two consoles now - if you consider the psp a console I guess?

One of them is of course the Dreamcast. When I see the DC I think of ambition, style, quality. The actually hardware itself is technically a bit **** (reset bug ffs) but it made gaming cheap as hell at a time when 1) I couldn't afford **** all. And 2) competing consoles were releasing games for ?55!!!!!!!!!! - ****ing perfect dark and conkers.

Best logo is the blue one.

[randombs]

Lovely sentiment, and I'm glad Moore keeps this up.

My mate brought over my DC and Saturn game collection so I'll be sure to grab a DC soon and get Shenmue-ing

@Kit: I agree. Blue is so much nicer. Fits the dreaminess of the console. (OT, but I also prefer the lovely UK Saturn intro to the horrible JP one)

[Yakumo]

US release doesn't count in my opinion. The DC is Almost 16 years old come November, not 15

[Shoju]

I remember reading about the launch with great interest on Digitiser on teletext. I bought mine shortly after UK launch for about ?150 I think. It was VF3TB, Dynamite Cop and Soul Calibur and an exclusive RE that got me to buy mine. It was great that you could play imports so easily with disc swap too and finally a 60hz mode. Mine still works last I checked. Never had a problem in all these years.

I remember seeing one for the first time in CEX back when they still sold imports. They had one running Sega Rally 2 and lots of people crowding around it. I was underwhelmed at the time but of course things picked up later.

[dave heats]

It was just the best time to get into games. For me, PSone got me started, but the DC turned me into an obsessive, importing bastard.
Some moments stand out:

• Importing Jet Set Radio from JPN on release and literally having my entire world influenced by it.

• Riding / racing to GAME on a 50cc scooter in the snow and ice to pick up Shenmue. Then racing home, nearly crashing, but it being all worthwhile to ask people about "that day" in a snowy, amazing digital world.

• Being close to tears when my console developed the dreaded reset power board fault, and sending it off to SEGA for what felt like eternity.

• Discovering the song "Lets Get It On Tonight" from MSR is one of the greatest releases of our time.

[noobish hat]

I got mine for Christmas around 2001 I think it was. It was already on its last legs of course and all the guys at school were talking about nothing but GTA 3. Actually I remember a kid laughing when he asked me what I was getting for Christmas and I told him. I assume he thought we were too poor to afford a PS2. Well, we were, but I'd specifically asked for a DC and had no interest whatsoever in the PS2. I was all about the underdog. Christmas day arrived and my mum had got me a machine with a keyboard and mouse and a pile of copied games (which I wasn't too happy with tbh, I was always 100% CIB in those days). Maybe because that stack of copied games put me off collecting, I don't know, but I only ever played a handful of games on the DC, but I played the HELL out of them. Christmas day was mostly Quake 3, but it was the American version, so sadly I couldn't take it online. I LOVED Crazy Taxi. Astonishing soundtrack that was spot-on perfect for the time it came out when everyone was into that sort of stuff. The game had pure adrenaline running right through it. I loved the neat tricks you could pull off too, and I gave the shoulder buttons a right clackering with that game.

Sonic Adventure, I never even got past the first couple of areas because I became totally obsessed with the Chaos and the VMU. Probably spent about a hundred hours just on that. Some day I'll have to sit down and play the rest of the game.

Bomberman Online was terrific, even though I never got to go online with it, again, because it was American.

I had Soul Calibur 2 as well, but mostly I just used to pause it and look up Sophitia's skirt.

Almost all of my time was spent on PSO though. What a hell of a game. It's possibly the game I spent most time on in my entire life (competing with Call of Duty Zombies and various Pokemon games). I really dread to think how much money I cost my mum in phone bills. Some nights I wouldn't even be playing the game, I'd just be talking to somebody from another country (I didn't have a PC with the Internet until about 2003). SUCH memories of this game. Some times at work I put on the OST and it honestly brings a tear to my eye and fires crackling lightning bolts of nostalgia painfully at my brain. I eventually got so frustrated with the game because of all the hackers and cheating ***** constantly breaking my save file that I took the disc out and dashed it at a wall, shattering it. I went out the next day and bought another copy. In the end though it did get beyond a joke and I stopped playing. Picked up a Cub broadband adapter a few years ago but never got a Cube copy of the game. I'd love to go back to it...

Also, the internet browser. Like teletext, if I somehow experienced it again now, I may well have an embolism from the nostalgia. So much hentai. I mean, er, researching. And learning and stuff or whatever.

[bash]

You mean Soul Calibur 2?

[dave heats]

Oh god, you mentioning the internet on the DC noobish hat, I've just had flashbacks of slowly downloading porn jpegs from thehun line by line on Dreamkey, and the classic A/S/L? question you'd ask some user called BlondeBabe69 on the dreamarena chat rooms, who was most likely a 45 year old bloke from Yorkshire.

[importaku]

My first ownership of dreamcast was pretty much crushing dissappointment. I remember seeing one running in new generation consoles in Leeds and been amazed at Sonic adventure it really did look fantastic, few months later i had saved enough to pick up a Japanese import from Gamestation along with Sonic & a VMU. Got home & played it to realise it was all looks and no polish, Sonic would skitter about like some crack addict & janky controls that would punish you if you veered even remotely from the single path the game expects you to stay on. Along with falling through the floor to your doom & getting stuck in walls and allsorts of unfinished crap that was littered through that turd of a game.

Seeing as i had paid so much i had no choice but to stick with it but the library was full of games i had no interest in, well from what little there was on offer as the import shops didn't exactly have a massive selection of stellar titles. Eventually found pop'n'musc & the controller which i enjoyed a lot and later i discovered code veronica which was fun but apart from those i was left searching, eventually i got fed up of finding no games that appealed to me, in the end i ended up flogging it all to my friend.

Many years passed until i eventually ended up getting another again for just one game and that game was samba de amigo, and that's all it exists in my collection for now as a way of playing the best version of samba.

[charlesr]

So many shooters.