Goddamnit.

[DaMadFiddler]

Sometimes I really want my fucking Dreamcast back. Most of the time it's easy to ignore, as I have a large percentage of the games on other platforms. But sometimes I just get a nostalgia wave for my DC, or I want to play one of the platform-exclusive games I had.

Unfortunately, my Dreamcast collection was rather large, and would be kind of stupidly expensive to replace at this point in time. Much of it was bought in the years immediately following the downfall of the system, and several "post-mortem" releases were bought at the time of their publication (Ikaruga, Border Down, Puyo Pop Fever, etc) and have significantly increased in value.

There doesn't seem to be much of a development scene any more (most have either moved on, migrated to other platforms, or gone semi-pro with things like XNA and iPhone App Store), so the lack of new releases would make a re-investment even less worthwhile. But sometimes I just really want a good game of Power Stone or Jet Grind Radio, and I *should* be able to have it.

When I broke up with my last ex, she was borrowing my Dreamcast (along with my GameCube and original Game Boy games, though I still have my 'Cube games. I'd just gotten a Wii, and had loaned her the GameCube to play the Game Boy cartridges). She never gave it back, she never let me come get it, and despite uncountable promises, she never sent it to me. I have a feeling she probably sold it years ago, but it still pisses me off.

I want my goddamn Dreamcast, and by all rights, I should be able to be playing it right now.

[Specially Cork]

I really didn't like my Dreamcast as much as I thought I did. Apart from Shenmue I have no interest in anything that was on the system. As I never owned a PS1 it was the first console I owned that offered games in the much cheaper "-R" format *ahem* from friend's friend's dad's friends so I kinda went crazy over that and just enjoyed not being restrained by my pitiful allowance. Then came my PS2 and first part-time job which was a complete game-changer and I never looked back. SONY4LIFE

[DaMadFiddler]

See, the Dreamcast is the system that helped me rediscover my faith in gaming. I loved the NES, SNES, and Genesis as a kid, but 3D gaming (i.e. Playstation, but to some degree also N64) was a major turn-off to me. Blocky 3D models and blurry textures looked significantly worse to my eye than good 2D art, controls and physics were still somewhat primitive, levels felt either tiny and claustrophobic or huge and empty, and I just wasn't interested in what that generation had to offer. The Dreamcast (and, specifically, Rez and Soul Calibur) was the system that showed me that "hey, this 3D thing can be worthwhile after all." I've since revisited that first 3D generation and found some games I really enjoy, but overall, the PSX/N64/Saturn remain my least favorite console generation so far.

The Dreamcast also marked two other important milestones for me: involvement in homebrew communities (and the possibility of "life after death" for old game consoles), and fighting games. In the Street Fighter 2 / Mortal Kombat days, I'd never been good at fighters, but in exploring the Dreamcast's library, I found that my tastes had changed and I found a number of fighting titles that I really liked. As a result, I also went back and started playing Smash Bros. (the only N64 game I had any interest in for a long time).

Games I particularly miss (that were in my collection):

Bomberman Online - I know there are lots of Bomberman games, but I particularly liked the game variations that were available in this one
Border Down - sucker for good shooters
Grandia 2 - the PS2 version is both buggier and muddier looking
Headhunter - my first-ever import game
House of the Dead 2 - playing with the Wii remote just isn't the same
Ikarug - yeah, I have it for GameCube, but I played it first on DC
Jet Grind Radio - never been rereleased
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 - I do have the PS3 download, but this game still has strong ties to the DC version for me
Power Stone 2 - not available on anything else except PSP, and nobody I know owns a PSP
Rez - I have the PS2 version, but again, this will always be a part of the Dreamcast experience for me
Soul Caliber - still one of my favorite fighting games, and I like the timing of the original best. The newer iterations are faster paced, but I always liked the strategy that went with figuring out the recovery time needed from moves in the original. (And no, I don't have a 360)
Space Channel 5 - the PS2 version just doesn't feel quite right... like the timing's a little off or something
Typing of the Dead - this was great to pull out with friends over, and I'd always kind of hoped to give it to my kids some day as an "educational" toy
Under Defeat - really fun title, with surprisingly nice visuals. Expensive as hell now.
Virtua Tennis - though I'm not usually big on sports titles, I love the solid feel of this game

I also miss tracking forum threads on titles under development, and keeping a stack of CD-Rs nearby to check out the latest build of whatever project. Downloading a new homebrew, always afraid that it would look like cheap junk and secretly hoping that it would bridge that gap between garage development and "professional" quality.

But, homebrew development has all but stopped (there are much more active scenes for platforms like the Wii), and despite its impressive post-mortem run, I think the commercial releases have likely come to an end at last. I've played all these games to death, and own the majority of them (or sequels/equivalents) on other platforms. I think the Dreamcast was always as much about optimism and potential as it was about what there actually was for the system, making the system's slightly cheesy name surprisingly apt. It really wouldn't make sense to shell out the money replacing my collection, but I do kind of resent the fact that my existing collection was taken from me.

[Wagh]

You can have mine.

[Juan]

Fuck that "it's better than the PS2 version bullshit". Either they aren't, or the PS2 has a better sequel/extended version.

[mankrip]

I can't help but laugh at you for you letting a woman steal everything.

You should have kicked her door to the ground and taken your stuff back by force ages ago.

[mrandyk]

I know I don't like the Dreamcast as much as I thought I did, but it and Shenmue 2 was pretty much the last time I gave a shit about gaming at all (aside from that odd Guitar Hero phase). I have an afternoon with not a single thing planned and none of it is going to be spent playing video games, that used to be unthinkable for me. I don't know if my interests have shifted or new video games suck as much as I like to say they do, but I haven't felt a strong urge to play a game since I found Shenmue 2 back in like 2005/6.

[DaMadFiddler]

I can't help but laugh at you for you letting a woman steal everything.

You should have kicked her door to the ground and taken your stuff back by force ages ago.

Laugh all you want. The situation was somewhat... complicated (one part of which was the fact that we lived three hours and a toll bridge apart, making "just dropping by" for my stuff an all-day ordeal), and her dad is a cop, so I'm sure the "kick down the door" approach had a lot of potential to backfire. I'm not really going to go into detail here, but I probably never should have dated her in the first place. My Dreamcast collection was the price of my stupidity.

My DC collection is the only thing of any significant value that has ever been stolen from me, fortunately. If I got lucky and came across a really nice Dreamcast collection at a really good price, I don't think I could pass it up. However, I've sunk quite a bit of money into my Dreamcast stuff over the years, and I don't think I could bring myself to spend the time or the money to rebuild what I had. It's just not worth it at this point.

Still, there are times when I really just want to pull out the Dreamcast. This weekend is one of those times, hence the rant.

[BlueCrab]

Geez... All this work on DCRPG and you don't even have a Dreamcast?!
Pfft.




I guess I'm the only one who stockpiles them.

[DaMadFiddler]

Like I said, it's not so much the DC itself as the collection I miss. Some of the games I had (Under Defeat, for example) would not be inexpensive to replace. You can get a Dreamcast anywhere, but the games are where the real cost is.

[not just souLLy now]

Genuinely if you've no intentions of collecting them again and purely just want the experience of playing a few games briefly, why not just get a cheap console and pirate some games?
You've already paid for them all once and no developer would be losing revenue since they're all second-hand copies now anyway.

[DanteJay]

I guess I'm the only one who stockpiles them.

I have 5. But I plan on selling two.

[BlueCrab]

I guess I'm the only one who stockpiles them.

I have 5. But I plan on selling two.

I probably have 25 or so (including an HKT-0120 ). Although, not all of those have all their parts and whatnot. People have given me Dreamcasts that are missing parts...

[melancholy]

Over the years, I discovered that the only real thing I truly enjoyed about the Dreamcast was that it introduced me (and much of the world) to console homebrew. It was this amazing revolutionary thing that I could browse the web ON MY DREAMCAST, or I could play SNES games ON MY DREAMCAST, or I could watch ripped DVD's ON MY DREAMCAST. It was less of a gaming device and more of a portal of awesome things I could show off to my friends and roommates.

So when the console developing scene moved to the Xbox, and then the Wii, the magic of being able to do crazy things with a console kinda dried up. And that left just the games, which most of the best games have either been ported to other systems or had sequels that antiquated the originals. Of course, I still have my Dreamcast in case I get in the mood for a classic game I can't find elsewhere (like Jet Set Radio or Toy Commander), but the Dreamcast now lives as the gateway console that brought me into the modding community.

[DaMadFiddler]

A valid point, Mel. A big part of the Dreamcast was the homebrew scene, and how new and exciting that was at the time.

But I'll only half-give you the second point. Yes, many of the Dreamcast's best games have found their ways to other platforms. But not all of them have, and some have been in inferior form. To make sense of the following list, please bear in mind that I have long since given up on PC gaming, and use my laptop only as a web browser, media repository, and creative tool (writing, art, music editing, etc).

A few examples:
- MDK2. The difficulty was significantly dumbed down on the PS2 version, and the textures weren't as sharp. The Wii version is (I believe) based on the Dreamcast version, but with scratchier audio and some missing effects in order to meet Nintendo's download size requirements.
- Soul Calibur. I still like this one better than any of the numbered sequels, mainly because of the attack timing. It is available for 360, but (1) I don't have one of those and (2) I prefer hard copies.
- Border Down & Under Defeat. While the Dreamcast was somewhat flooded with them, I do enjoy a good sh'mup, and neither of these appeared on any other system.
- Power Stone 2. Love this game; the only other platform it's available on is PSP. I'll take my fighting games on a full sized console, thank you.
- Jet Grind Radio. Never been ported.
- Rayman 2. Was on lots of platforms, but the Dreamcast version is generally considered the best. The PSX and N64 had inferior graphics, and the PS2 version had some issues.
- Grandia 2. Also available on PS2, but that version had numerous graphical glitches, particularly with magic effects.
- Shenmue. Never been ported. And the Xbox version of Shenmue 2 somehow wound up inferior... not sure how that happened, given the relative power difference.
- Space Channel 5. Was ported to PS2, but as previously noted, the controls don't feel as precise. And in a rhythm game, that's a big problem.
- Lack of Love. Never been ported. Also, the only Dreamcast game I really wanted to play that I never managed to get my hands on.
- Evil Twin. Never been ported.

So there's a handful for you, and that's only listing things that I had in my collection (with the exception of LoL). I'll acknowledge that it's mostly a nostalgia thing, and the points Mel lists are a big part of the reason I *didn't* rebuild my collection after the loss. Wii has a more robust homebrew scene, and the vast majority of games have ports or sequels (though as mentioned, some of those are inferior). That doesn't mean I don't miss being able to pull out the Dreamcast and play my games, though.

[Specially Cork]

Shenmue is the only game on that list I care about.

When I think back to what I played and really enjoyed on my DC it's probably only- Shenmue 1 & 2, Skies of Arcadia, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, Crazy Taxi, Metropolis Street Racer, Jet Set Radio, Tony Hawk 2, House of the Dead 2, RE Code Veronica and Virtua Tennis.

I've successfully emulated Shenmue 1,2 and JSR to a playable standard. The rest are available elsewhere in some form or another.

Depressingly I wrote that from memory and felt it was far too short so went through the full PAL games list..and found nothing more. There's only 216 games and a huge percentage of utter garbage.

I really recall it being a much better system than that.