Originally posted by Leon Retro
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Retro|Spective 50: AM3-Hitmaker
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That's an amazing portfolio. I'd forgotten about that Sonic trackball game. I do remember seeing screenshots in mags for it but I never saw the machine anywhere. It looks brill.
Man, Dreamcast's European marketing was utterly dreadful. In trying to be cool and cutting edge, and reach a broader market, it lacked any sense of fun or connection to the product. Arsenal FC, no. Malcolm McLaren, no. Robbie Williams, no. Haircut races, no. Branding colours akin to office equipment, no. It was all bad.
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Of the games in the list:
-SegaSonic: I only ever played briefly via emulator as it was genuinely too awkward to control without the trackball and I never saw a machine out in the wild.
-Decathelete: I spent quite a large amount of time on this on the Saturn. Hard to say why by of this type of game this was the one that appealed to me the most. In opposition I spent little time with Winter Heat.
-Sega Rally: To this day the best entry, took a while to click with me because of that drift mechanic but once it does it was just brilliant and felt better to play than RR even if the sequels were misses.
-Last Bronx: If I'm honest, I get what they intended with the game but its appeal always fell below VF, FV and FM from Sega for me. It's solid enough but not that appealing.
-Virtua Tennis: Does the game well but I was never that bothered by the series
-Crazy Taxi: Just ruddy awesome and like Rally, the original is the best entry before the sequels messed up the formula.
-Star Wars Racer Arcade: Not that great a racer but the machines recreation of the pod controls always kept it appealing
-Cosmic Smash: I wanted to play this for ages before eventually getting access to it late on with Summer of Dreamcast thread. It was okay in the end but didn't grab me like I'd hoped.
-Segagaga: Never played it but remember watching the final boss vid that is just brilliant.
-Initial D Special Stage: Owned this after loving the Ver.2 arcade machine but the language barrier stopped me putting in the time I'd have liked to. The core game is great though.
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Decathlete is the best track and field game ever made, so much fun to play and a brilliant line up of characters too. It also looked amazing, with Model 2 like visuals and all running at 60 fps and in 704x480 res.Last edited by Team Andromeda; 20-07-2018, 12:55.
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Originally posted by Team Andromeda View PostDecathlete is the best track and field game ever made, so much fun to play and a brilliant line up of characters too. It also looked amazing with Mode 2 like visuals and all running at 60 fps and in 704x480 res.
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Originally posted by Asura View PostNot sure I agree with that. Bear in mind that GTA2 came out on Dreamcast, and GTA3 kinda came out of nowhere. .
So I'm essentially saying that the PS2 getting a 'killer app' like GTA3 - a game that felt like something really new and cutting edge, wasn't a coincidence. No, top publishers and studios were very much focused on Sony's new machine. So behind the scenes there was probably lots of pro-PS2 stuff going on. That as well as the media creating hype that suggested the PS2 was going to be truly groundbreaking, helped create huge momentum for the PS2 before it launched. I remember people back in 1999 saying they're not buying a Dreamcast because they'd rather wait for the PlayStation 2.
By the end of the '90s, Sony and the PlayStation brand had become not only cool and trendy in the minds of consumers, but the games industry had also fallen in love with the brand and Sony's approach to gaming. All that positivity made it near impossible for Sega to compete. Despite the Dreamcast being good tech and having some impressive games. I don't think it ever stood a chance of competing with the PS2, simply because the world of gaming had become enamoured with Sony, to the point where companies like EA wouldn't support Sega, and groundbreaking games like GTA3 were always going to be important PS2 killer apps that all sorts of gamers would embrace. Sega just didn't have enough ammunition in its arsenal - and allies within the modern gaming industry - to make a comeback against Sony and its PlayStation brand.
Of course, this has been talked about a lot, so it's essentially all about the rise of Sony, and the fall of Sega. Has anyone written a book about how Sony took on Sega and Nintendo and won?Last edited by Leon Retro; 20-07-2018, 15:01.
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Originally posted by Atticus View PostI suppose the fact it was up against (what would become) the most successful console ever didn't help either.
Originally posted by Team Andromeda View PostDecathlete is the best track and field game ever made, so much fun to play and a brilliant line up of characters too. It also looked amazing, with Model 2 like visuals and all running at 60 fps and in 704x480 res.
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Originally posted by Team Andromeda View PostDecathlete is the best track and field game ever made, so much fun to play and a brilliant line up of characters too. It also looked amazing, with Model 2 like visuals and all running at 60 fps and in 704x480 res.
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Originally posted by Asura View PostThe DVD player was a big part of it. I knew a fair few people at the time who bought the PS2 specifically for that reason. If you were planning to buy one anyway, it was like you were getting the PS2 for an extra £50. It was a real bargain, and certainly a factor in why I bought mine.
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Originally posted by Asura View PostBut things move quickly. By 1999, circumstances had changed. The students who had bought into the Playstation in the mid-90s were now urban professionals. More people understood videogames than ever before, and by 2000, it was perfectly reasonable to - SHOCK - show videogames in their advertising, along with a bit of stuff that vicariously communicates the experience of playing them.
So the people were totally clusless as to what SEGA was selling. Muppets run SEGA Europe in the DC era.
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Originally posted by Superman Falls View PostWas Winter Heat a decent follow up to Decathalete? Still don't know why I never bothered with that one given the time the first game got
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