Dreamcast what ifs

[tokyochojin]

Has Trizeal been released yet? Looking forward to hearing about this un'.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Has Trizeal been released yet? Looking forward to hearing about this un'.

It has indeed. My copy is in the mail!

[tokyochojin]

If it's not just available through SEGA direct, it's a toss between this and Border Down at the weekend.

[anephric]

You get a free bandana with Trizeal!

Sold.

[Big Seany]

I need Trizeal. How much would it be to buy one shipped? May see if I can get someone in Japan to get me one as cheap as possible - just seen screenshots and now I want it I want it I WANT IT!!!

[tokyochojin]

I know Yakumo is selling them on his site for ?44 mate, i think it's the box set too!

[Big Seany]

Hmm. Very tempting. Will see how my finances are after I get paid. Bloody import games! So addictive!

[Kubrick]

Looking back through the whole topic, and I see the "Sony/PS2 killed the DC" comments which are understandable since it seemed to sell purely on hype and tech demos for the first year at least. It certainly didn't have any Dreamcast-beaters in it's catalogue back then, but here's one for you; What if the Xbox never existed?

It's always looked to me as though SEGA gave up as soon as the Xbox was unveiled, and not because Sony was outselling them (they'd been doing that for years anyway). Fighting with Sony (and Nintendo) was one thing, but when it became clear Microsoft's entry into the console market was going to be a serious one, that seemed to be the final nail in the coffin.

If Xbox never existed, do you think the DC could maybe have still enjoyed a niche position in the market? The Dreamcast would've still had the novelty of being the only console with online games, and What if the games that have since appeared on GC/PS2/XB like Monkey Ball etc would've remained on SEGA hardware? These were probably already well in development before they decided to go software-only, plus they still had loads of JP-only games that could've been translated/localised for the EU/US markets for little money - SeGaGaGa, Space Channel 5 Part2 etc. ****, even Virtual-ON never made it to Europe and that was years old, and already translated into English...

[anephric]

The relationship between SEGA and MS is perverse. The decision to make major releases (JSRF, ORTA, Shenmue 2) as well as a whole host of minor titles Xbox-only seemed strange and anti-market savvy. Stupid even.

Xbox as spiritual successor to DC? Maybe. More obviously SEGA sticking two fingers up at Sony like a little kid in a playground, even if it was self-destructive.

The Dreamcast would've still had the novelty of being the only console with online games

It wouldn't've been for very long, tho. And SEGA had already removed online features from some PAL iterations.

[hankwangford]

I think the DC may have lasted an extra year had piracy not been so rampant. I remember tons of different IRC channels and even regular websites had ISOs up, with dummy files already applied to download. It was probably the most damaging thing Sega ever had done to them.

Still, some of these what-ifs are irrelevent anyway. The DC will be 7 years old this year and with that in mind there would most certainly have been a follow up Sega console in 2003 or 2004; and that would have played host to VF4 Evo and Outrun 2, not Dreamcast.

[Ady]

I think the DC piracy issue has been blown way out of proportion. It was nothing compared to the situation on the PS1.

The DC died due to lack of interest in any console that didn't wear a 'Sony' badge.

Sega's laughable advertising didn't help either.

[MikeRox]

Virtua Tennis 2 was an exercise in fleecing what fans they had left one more time - Something I feel Nintendo are guilty of today with their quick-fire sequels/rehashes of Donkey Konga, Made in Wario etc.

There are alot of members on this board who feel VT2 is better than the original in every way. Tho I personally have always prefered the original I do love the novelty courts on VT2.

Made in Wario is the best thing Nintendo have come up with this gen and each ver has a genuinely different slant so don't bash that :P

[Jakeway]

If you look at the early PS2 games they are graphically on par with games on the Dreamcast, but more recently the PS2 has had some great looking games e.g Grand Turismo 4. I often wonder what they would have pushed out of the Dreamcast if it had two more years.

A few days ago a friend of mine said to me ?The Dreamcast doesn?t have any serious games? I thought about that for a bit, and wondered if maybe that help kill it.
If Mr Joe Public goes into game in 2001 he would see a dancing monkey, a taxi game, and a game with a Japanese bloke looking in cupboards. At this point he would be saying to himself ?were are the football games??

This could also be the problem with the GameCube, Only resident Evil 4 has push some consoles out the door recently.


Kubrick:
Monkey ball was a scraped idea by Sega because they thought it was stupid. The Fishing rod was going to be the controller used for the game? supposedly.

[nightstalker100]

dahh! so many what ifs and what could of beens. i just wished sega would of capitalised on their backlog of high calibre first party stuff. updates of shinobi, golden axe, space harrier, altered beast and outrun all belonging to a console they were meant for. oh and how could i forget streets of rage. had they played to their strengths more by developing their recognisable and most popular IPs and making them dc exclusve the console might have lasted longer. (closes his eyes and dreams of the possibilities!)

[Baseley09]

Arguably, despite the quality on both, they had the same problrem with the Saturn skirting round their traditional IP's rather than giving the fully fledged games people wanted