Classic Gaming Quarterly

Sega Dreamcast - The Last "Classic" Game Console?
by Chris Alaimo
02/09/2010

With a life cycle that spanned from September of 1999 until the release of its final game in February of 2002, the Sega Dreamcast can hardly be considered "classic" due to its age. But the swiftness with which it completely disappeared from the market makes the console feel much older than it is (even Game Stop and EB Games stopped accepting used Dreamcast games in early 2004.) Only one year younger is the Playstation 2, a console still being supported by Sony and that falls firmly into the "modern gaming" category. What the Dreamcast is however is the last remnant from the era of the traditional "hardcore" gamer.

The Dreamcast was launched in North America on September 9, 1999 (9/9/99) and sold a then-record 225,132 units within the first 24 hours. The system had what was arguably the best launch line-up ever seen, including Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, Hydro Thunder, House of the Dead 2, NFL 2K, and Soulcalibur - the highest rated Dreamcast game of all time. So successful was the Dreamcast early in its life cycle that it was even the subject of an episode of Comedy Central's "South Park" in April of 2000, in which the 4 main characters try to earn enough money from the tooth fairy to buy the system.

While the Dreamcast did have some cross-platform hits like the Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Resident Evil franchises, its library was made up primarily of exclusive titles. This was at least partly due to the unwillingness of many third party developers to release games on another Sega platform after the fiscal disaster that was the Saturn. First-party titles like Virtua Tennis, Crazy Taxi, the 2K sports series, Shenmue, and Phantasy Star Online, along with excellent third party games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and the aforementioned Soulcalibur helped make up the core of the Dreamcast's library. In addition, Sega took risks by experimenting with new game play ideas in games like Seaman and Jet Grind Radio - the former being a bit of a flop but the latter becoming one of the Dreamcast's true classics. Hits such as these are reminiscent of previous generations when it was the exclusive games that defined each console.

In addition to a stellar library of both first and third-party titles, the Dreamcast also led the way in online gaming and high-definition video. The Dreamcast came standard with an internal 56k modem that could be replaced by a broadband adapter, and was the first mainstream console explicitly intended to be played online. Sports games like the NFL 2k series supported online competition via the SegaNet online service, while Phantasy Star Online introduced console gamers to the world of massively multiplayer environments. Capable of outputting a 480p video signal with an optional adapter, gamers could hook their consoles up to any VGA monitor for the best image quality possible, long before HDTVs had become commonplace. Intended from the start to be a multiplayer-friendly machine, the Dreamcast also came with 4 controller ports which allowed for games like Virtua Tennis, Power Stone, and 2K sports series to be played by more than 2 players without the need for an external adapter.

Various iterations of the Dreamcast's packaging. The Sega Smash Pack bundle (lower left) included Sega Smash Pack vol. 1, a collection of classic Genesis games.

Is the Dreamcast the last classic console? Not yet, but it will be. Today's classic gamer is generally the hardcore gamer of yesteryear, and the Dreamcast was the last console that catered primarily to the true gaming enthusiast. I don't believe that today's modern consoles will elicit the same feelings of nostalgia from former users that the current crop of classics do. Most gaming companies are simply too risk-averse to try anything that is truly innovative or intended for a smaller audience. Will the Playstation 2 ever be collectible? Will the retrogamers of the future slog through dirt malls looking for hard-to-find Xbox 360 games? Or has an era come to a close, when each console had its own aura that owners identified with? We stubbornly insist that older games are far superior to those being produced today, but the simple fact is that we're just trying to recreate a little bit of the past - to go back to a simpler time when we were young and when games were special. I don't know if that same kind of emotion will be created in people whose youth was dominated by the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. What original games the systems do have are primarily available as downloads on the systems' respective online services. Perhaps in the future, classic gamers will regularly buy these consoles just to check the hard drives for downloaded games. Even then, the games may be locked and unplayable for a variety of reasons. It may turn into a scavenger hunt, the victory cry "I found a 360 today with a playable version of Braid on it!" posted on forums everywhere.

Because of their massive appeal to casual gamers, the three most popular game genres are sports games, simulation games (primarily racing), and first-person shooters. These are all genres that age poorly, as they are generally replaced every year by something bigger and better. No one plays Gran Turismo 2, Madden 98, or the original Medal of Honor anymore, and why would they? Will someone in the year 2025 hunt down an Xbox 360 so that they can play Halo 3? Obviously the Dreamcast had its share of games from all three of these genres, but they didn't define the system. Its 2k sports series was considered by many to be superior to EA's offerings on competing consoles. Although FPS games were few and far between, there was Rainbow Six, Unreal Tournament and Quake 3: Arena. The system also had a slew of racing games, including arcade-style hits such as Daytona USA 2001 and Sega Rally 2, and sim racers like F-1 World Gran Prix. While these games were great and are still enjoyed by Dreamcast enthusiasts, for the most part it isn't those games that the system is known for and they certainly aren't why the system is still beloved by so many gamers.

The Dreamcast will always have a special place in the hearts of many for its arcade-perfect ports, unique titles like Jet Grind Radio and yes, even quirky games like Seaman. The system was, first and foremost, a machine that brought true arcade gaming home and appealed primarily to those for whom gaming was not a casual distraction but a major hobby. While the Playstation (especially late in its life cycle) and the Playstation 2 brought gaming to a wider audience, the Dreamcast sought to attract the self-identified "gamer." While it may have proved once and for all that a console can't survive without marketing itself to a wider audience, for many devout gamers it represented the apex of home gaming.