When people think of Sega, aside from their output and reputation as a 3rd party developer for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, most people think of their icon of the late 1980s, the Sega Genesis. The Sega Genesis, by far, is the most recognizable piece of video game hardware that Sega has ever produced. The Sega Genesis (or Megadrive everywhere else in the world) was the only piece of hardware Sega produced that saw Nintendo-level success in America and is generally seen along with the Super Nintendo as one of the greatest pieces of home video game hardware ever made. Despite this Sega has arguably produced another piece of hardware that rivals that of the Genesis.
September 9, 1999 (9/9/99) was the day when Sega released its swansong in the home video game hardware business: the Dreamcast. To this day, the Dreamcast is noted by many to still be the best home video game console ever made. Such a claim like that can immediately come off as hyperbolic, as many other video game consoles have had that title bestowed upon them which many have found questionable- like the Nintendo 64 for example. And while many are still arguing to this day over whether the Sega Genesis/Megadrive and Super Nintendo are better than the other, most of the time little is said in opposition to the idea that the Dreamcast is the best. Whether or not it is the best ever is not my concern personally, but I can’t help but to recognize just how important the Dreamcast is within the context of gaming history and culture.
Even though the Dreamcast’s relevance in hardware sales was short lived in America, the library of games available for it at the time was incredibly diverse and, upon further inspection, speaks more to what the Dreamcast represented in the culture of gaming in 1999–2001.
What I’m about to talk about was mentioned in a YouTube video created by Adam Koralik on his 6th Console Generation Recap video and I highly suggest checking out his channel for learning about the history of video game hardware through the different console generations.
The Sega Dreamcast stands as an important symbol in gaming history. Having looked into the Dreamcast and its library of games, I find it difficult to argue against the claim that the Dreamcast is the ultimate game console. This is especially so when considering what gaming was aspiring to throughout the generations leading up to the Dreamcast. Video game consoles began development to bring the arcade experience home to the player. Of course, since the hardware in arcade machines was too expensive for consumers, consoles were given ports of those games that were watered down at best and rough approximations at worst. Developers quickly began to notice that home video game consoles didn’t only have to be cheap versions of arcade hardware, but could also have games purpose built with the hardware in mind to deliver unique experiences for the consoles that you couldn’t get at the arcade.
These two ideas expanded rapidly over the course of the 80s and 90s with every console having a collection of their own individual exclusive titles, third party titles and arcade ports, and people would- and in some cases still do- compare which arcade ports looked and performed better on which console. To a lesser extent, first person shooter games ported from PC to console received similar treatment as well.
In the years leading up to the release of the Dreamcast the function of a video game console was that it was a machine whose function is dedicated to playing video games. Of course, when CD ROM games became common, disk-based consoles’ abilities to play audio CDs was an added plus, but not a primary, nor major function of the hardware. The Dreamcast was the ultimate embodiment of the gaming landscape that had led up to that point. The Dreamcast’s library of games was incredibly diverse and, although it is comparably smaller to its competitors, the library of games for the Dreamcast is consistently rated as being of high quality. The Dreamcast offered an array of games including 3D platformers, light gun games, racing games- both arcade and simulation, JRPGs, long-running narrative driven games, shoot-em-ups, first person shooters, horror games, the list can go on. On top of that it had hardware which was powerful enough to run previous arcade games perfectly, and in some cases, better than the original hardware. The only instance where anyone would ever have a dream of doing anything remotely close to this would be the line of Neo Geo consoles, but the most sought after ones were incredibly expensive and they only played games published by SNK. The Dreamcast was also able to emulate games released by consoles that came out before it, and due to it being quite simple to develop for since the Dreamcast can read unsigned code, it was able to play original Playstation games better than the Playstation could and under optimal conditions, play the games better than even the Playstation 3 could. This is only counting what it was capable of doing while it was commercially viable. The Dreamcast was the ultimate gaming machine when it came to home consoles and no other console before it managed to be but tired to.
The Dreamcast was the last console for the hardcore gamer as it was tailor made for them. Seeing as how that’s what game consoles were traditionally marketed to, that makes sense. But it was a commercial failure despite it being the ultimate console gaming experience. The problem was that the gaming industry was taking a new direction and the beginning of the new era of gaming began with the Playstation 2, which was marketed first as a DVD player which helped to convince many people who weren’t part of that hardcore crowd to buy it anyway since it was a cheap alternative to dedicated DVD players at the time and it could also play games. This marked the beginning of an er where game consoles became more than just game consoles but multimedia devices. Something like the Dreamcast would probably not be commercially viable today because many people now expect their consoles to stream video online, play Blu-Ray and DVD, stream music, etc. Nintendo learned their lesson the hard way when many people criticized the Gamecube for not using the DVD format and, therefore, not being able to play DVDs- thereby going the casual direction with the Wii to make up for no DVD support on the Wii either. The Playstation 3 was primarily marketed as a cheap Blu-Ray player, and so on. The Dreamcast had none of this in mind in its design and it failed partially because of it.
The Dreamcast ultimately appealed to an enthusiast crowd that was too niche at the time to be competitive against Sony with the Playstation 2. While this was the case, the Dreamcast remains to be the ultimate game console as game consoles were known in the era before multimedia capabilities were not considered due to technological limitations.
Some could say that the Gamecube was the last of its kind as far as what video game consoles were in the 80s and 90s, but I think that the Gamecube was more of the coda to the swansong that was the Dreamcast. Despite the Gamecube’s rising popularity among many in recent years as far as discussions of its legacy is concerned, the Dreamcast ultimately better represented gaming in its ultimate form. It was, essentially, what gaming industry had worked itself up to as far as the goals of consoles were concerned. I know I might be repeating myself, but there truly hasn’t been anything like the Dreamcast since, and there likely never will be.
What the Dreamcast does have to offer gamers today is not only a retro experience in experiencing old arcade classics from the 90s, but also high quality, serious games that hold up today- particularly the Shenmue series. The Dreamcast was a pioneer in technology as far as downloadable content, internet connectivity and online multiplayer, as well as offering triple-A games that still measure up to the caliber of expansive narrative-driven games of recent years, but it is simultaneously a product of its time that has aged remarkably well. In a way it is still an ultimate gaming machine to some capacity. Sure it isn’t anywhere near up to spec with current machines and it isn’t necessarily the only place the old arcade classics can be enjoyed anymore. But there is a level of authenticity to it that, to some, might not be an important aspect of the gaming experience as the games themselves. And they might be right, but there has to be some reason why the Dreamcast still has such an active fan base that cares enough to keep supporting the machine over a decade after its own parent company discontinued it.
The Dreamcast is the book-end to an era of gaming the likes of which we’ll likely never see again. And while it is considered a commercial failure, and that it did mark the end of an era, it ended that era being the best, and the most perfect incarnation of what consoles were originally designed to be, and I would reckon that that is the reason why so many love it with such devotion. And because of that love by fans, unlike all of its predecessors, it’s still thinking.
