Happy 15th US Birthday Dreamcast!

[tokyochojin]

Can't believe its already been 15 years since the release of the Dreamcast, that's half my life.

I wrote some of my thoughts here - http://www.dcgaga.com/2014/09/us-dre...niversary.html but I am interested to hear the Bordersdown crew on their memories, particularly of the launch and if anyone actually cracked at the time and picked up a US NTSC console?

Myself, I shall be celebrating by playing as many of the launch titles as time permits. Starting with the awesome, POWERSTONE!

[chipsgravy]

I remember picking up a JPN import console with Soul Calibur one week before the official pal launch release. The guys in the shop thought I was crazy and should wait a week for the UK launch. But I knew that I didn't want a pal one. NTSC 4 Life brother.

Then I returned to the same shop once modchips became available to get it chipped, again they couldn't understand why as I could already play the best imports. However now I could play games from anywhere. pal included.

It is my favourite console of all time and I still regularly fire it up for a quick game of Giant Gram 2000. It now has a VGA conversion fitted which runs to a VGA - HDMI adaptor, as my latest TV didn't have VGA in annoyingly.

[QualityChimp]

Ultimate Collectors Guide book:

https://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2015/10/the-ultimate-collectors-guide-book.html?m=1

[samanosuke]

I salivated over the images of the Japanese DC in Edge and was hell-bent on getting one despite the lacklustre launch titles available.

Ended up losing my job so never managed to pick up an import DC. Bought the PAL console upon release and was absolutely blown away by how many quality titles were released for it in such a short space of time. Got it chipped and was playing the likes of Powerstone 2 and JSR months before they were released here, and in Shenmue's case a whole year!

Shame it had so many weak PS1 and PC ports (okay, some PC ports were decent) as the machine clearly had so much potential as was shown by the original titles.

One thing I will say that takes the sheen of its legacy is its lack of AAA exclusives, and this unfortunately comes down to its premature demise. Had Sega not had to release most of its top titles on other consoles to stay afloat, we would surely be reminiscing at how many top quality exclusives it had. Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, Phantasy Star Online, Shenmue 2, JSR, Skies of Arcadia... These games stunned me at the time and still hold up well today.

I still have my DC and it is in fact my only 'modern' (ie 3D) console unless you include the DS.

[fuse]

Ultimate Collectors Guide book:
https://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co....-book.html?m=1

Put my order in for this and got told it was order number 5. That's a shame

[QualityChimp]

I think they sold out of the first batch, if that makes you feel better!

[fuse]

Aha! It does. Sounds like a bargain for ?10, anyway - looking forwards to it.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Reminds me - need to hit up Console Passion and get my PAL DC modded!

[CMcK]

Put my order in for this and got told it was order number 5. That's a shame

My order is number 19. Looks like it will be a few weeks before the next batch is available.

[Leon Retro]

The moment I saw Soul Calibur running on a friend's Japanese Dreamcast, I knew I had to have one. I bought the Pal machine(I don't really know why I didn't just buy an NTSC machine? Doh! But most games have a 60hz option) at launch.

I have quite a few machines now - American, Japanese and Pal. It's still a console I go back to and enjoy a lot. It hasn't got a huge library of great games, simply because lots of developers ignored it and it wasn't on the shelves very long, but it has enough quality titles to keep me coming back for more. Through VGA it looks magical.

[Team Andromeda]

I don't know why the DC gets the love it does . It's a nice console with some gems but it's no Saturn, Master System killer , think the old XBox is a much better console too

[Cepp]

An argument can be made for the Saturn for sure but the sms? No way, there just aren't enough good games.

[Team Andromeda]

An argument can be made for the Saturn for sure but the sms? No way, there just aren't enough good games.

There's plenty of gems on the MS and there's far more good games to boot . I really like the DC but go past its AAA titles and there's not much imo .

[speedlolita]

I don't know why the DC gets the love it does . It's a nice console with some gems but it's no Saturn, Master System killer , think the old XBox is a much better console too

Same. But hey, people like what they like.

[Leon Retro]

I really like the DC but go past its AAA titles and there's not much imo .

I like the N64, but there are only around 10 games I'd still want to play on it these days. So I'd say the N64 is worse than the Dreamcast when it comes to replay value.

The Dreamcast has far more games that I still want to play. Some fun, nice looking racing games, and quite a few enjoyable arcade-style games and shooters. Not forgetting some great fighting games and a few quirky gems like Pen Pen Triicelon(I really enjoy it, despite some people hating it.) And, now and then, you get a reasonable or good new shooter to enjoy.

It's a fun little machine that delivers a very nice image quality. Of course, we can shed a tear because it had a very short life, and would have had lots more games had it been given a proper commercial lifespan of 5 years. It really makes me sad to think that it should have hosted far more games.