10 Reasons to Buy a Sega Dreamcast

In 1996, Sega was in dire straights. While the Saturn had reasonable success in Japan(it fared better then the Nintendo 64), it tanked in the US and Europe, finishing last in the 32/64 bit console wars. The Saturn, though a power house, was insanely difficult to program for and many developers simply did not want to put effort into developing for it. Because of the Saturn's failure, Sega had lost a fair share of the market that the Genesis had established, allowing Sony's new monster, the Playstation, to gain the lead. In 1997, Sega put the axe to the Saturn and many of its other divisions and put all its efforts into developing a new console. This angered many developers because the move was abrupt and rendered all their projects as a waste. Sega knew the next system had to be big to pull their name out of the hole it had dug for itself.

1999 saw the release of the Sega Dreamcast, the first 128 bit console to be released. It was release 16 months prior to the PS2 and years before the XBox and Gamecube. What do you know about the Dreamcast? Because the DC was Sega's final system, alot of people write it off as a failure, when in fact you couldn't be farther from the truth. For its time, it implemented many features that wouldn't be seen in its rivals until years after(or not at all). Heres 10 reasons to buy Sega's last gift to the gaming world.

1. Cheap Price
Perhaps because its still relatively new, you can still pick up alot of the Dreamcasts greatest games on eBay or Amazon with out putting a huge hole in your wallet. You could buy the Dreamcast, 4 controllers, a memory card, and 4-5 of its top games for less the $100. This is not something that can be done with many systems classic systems. Have you seen the outrageous prices for some of the Playstations greats? Final Fantasy VII is running at $50++ on eBay. Or have you ever thought about purchasing a Sega Saturn? Some of the best titles like Shining Force 3, Guardian Heroes, and Dragon Force run in excess of $100!

2. Innovative, original game 1st party games
Sega knew it was in trouble and knew if it wanted to compete, it was absolutely necesary to develop great, original games. It also knew it would have to do alot of this work by itself, because many companies were upset at Sega's abrupt halting of the Sega Saturn. Sega lived up to its goal by creating games that pushed the envelope in terms of graphics and creativity. You saw the release of games like Rez, Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue, the 2K line of sports titles, and many others that added new elements to traditional genres, spicing up the tired old concepts. The Dreamcast has some of the most original, innovative titles you can find on consoles nowadays.

3. Free online gaming and web browsing
The Dreamcast came packed with a free 56K modem and allowed you to surf the net using a mouse and keyboard and also play online games for free. This is years before Sony came out with the broadband adaptor(and the PS2 never supported web browsing). There were also dozens of games with online modes, like Quake, Chu Chu Rocket, Ooga Booga, and others. The cream of the crop was Phantasy Star Online, an addicting Diablo type RPG. To top it off, the web browser and many of the games are still online!

4. Arcade perfect ports
Both the Dreamcasts and the arcade games made by Sega's Arcade Division ran similiar software and both used GD Roms. This meant not only was it extremely easy to port one of their arcade games to the Dreamcast, it was also ran perfectly in comparison to the arcade, a rarity still even today. This meant you saw perfect ports of various fighters, shoot em ups, and racing games. For fighters, Marvel VS Capcom 2, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Gaoru Mark of the Wolves(Fatal Fury), King of Fighters all saw flawless DC ports. Crazy Taxi and Sega Rally were two top driving games that saw perfect arcade ports. As for the shoot em ups, there are dozens upon dozens, too many to even name. If you are a fighter or shooter fan, you absolutely must own a Dreamcast.

5. Wide Array of Multiplayer Games
The Dreamcast came with 4 controller ports and made great use of this by releasing several excellent 1-4 player games. Games from every genre, from shoot em up, to fighting, to F/TPS, to RTS, had some sort of multiplayer mode attached. Games such as Power Stone 2, Ooga Booga, Toy Commander, Quake, and Armada all had fun 4 player modes. The DC has a multiplayer library that surpasses that of the PS2 and is on par or exceeds the XBox and Gamecube.

6. Region Free
The Dreamcast is essentially region free, requiring no hardware modifications to run games from a different region. To play a game from another region, all the user has to do is run a boot disc first. This is a great feature, considering some games were released in Japan and Europe but never hit the US. With most consoles, you would have to open your system up and perform a hardware mod, but this is not the case with the Dreamcast. This expands the 250+ library of US games to almost triple the amount available.

7. Peripherals and other Accessories
Keeping in line with the originality, innovations, and creativity seen in game design, the DC also saw an increase in the use of peripherals and other accessories to play games. For example, Sega Bass Fishing had a motion control fishing rod, which could also be used to swing your weapons in Soul Calibur or as a racket in Virtua Tennis(eat your heart out, Wii). You also had Samba de Amigo which implemented maracas to keep in beat with the game. You had Seaman, which came packaged with a microphone so you could talk to your virtual fish pet. Of course, it also had a keyboard and mouse for browsing the web, and for games like Quake and Typing of the Dead. To play the arcade perfect fighting ports, you also had a heavy duty aracde stick, made in the exact fashion the arcade sticks were made. You also had the DreamEye which acted as a webcam and also had uses in games too. Microsoft and Sony would later copy this idea with the Live Vision camera and Eye Toy, respectively. Thats just the scratching the surface as well!

8.The VMU(Virtual Memory Unit) Memory Card.
The Dreamcasts memory card was far more then just a traditional memory card. It had a small LCD screen and control buttons. Many Dreamcast games had minigames that could be installed onto the VMU that you could play on the road away from the DC. For example, Sonic Adventure had a minigame where you could raise an animal called Chaos in a fashion very similar to that of Giga Pets. You could then use your pet you raised with the VMU in the actual game. Many games supported the VMU in similar ways, making it a huge innovation.

9. The Homebrew Community
The Homebrew community of the Dreamcast is huge. Because you can use Microsoft CE devlopment kits, as well as Linux, it was quite easy for novice programmers to design games for the Dreamcast. Also, because Dreamcasts can read plain CD-Rs without hardware mods, you could get a widespread release of your created game. Games are still being made today, with several coming out in 2007 already and more being developed still. Some of these games are indeed quite impressive, as well.

10. The Development of the 2K Sports Titles
When Sega axed the Saturn, no developer was as ticked off as Electronic Arts. They had to scrap several projects and they vowed to never produce games for a Sega console again. This prompted Sega to develop several of its own sports titles which stood up to and even surpassed EA's sports titles. The closest rivalry was with Sega's NFL2K series and EA's Madden series. Both games were critically acclaimed, and the Segas newcomer NFL2K and 2K1 both beat out Madden's 2000 and 20001 NFL games in sales. The Dreamcast was the original home of these titles and were very successful.

In conclusion, Sega's Dreamcast was far from being a failure. It was a very advanced system, innovating several features that wouldn't be seen again until years after its demise. Sega didn't fail because of the Dreamcast, it failed because of the wasted money on the 16 bit Genesis add ons(like the Sega CD and 32X) and the Sega Saturn. The Dreamcast went along way in restoring the industries faith in Sega, but it just wasn't enough to stand up to the hype of the PS2. I hope you will take these 10 reasons to heart and give the Dreamcast a try after reading this article, if you are a gamer, you owe it to yourself to give this system a go. You will definately be pleasantly surpirsed.