This day isn’t about us. It is about a mutual love and respect for Sega’s final and greatest console, The Dreamcast.

On that note, I asked around within the gaming communities I am a part of to see what others remember about the console. Come along with me and enjoy “Thoughts from Around the Internet”.

“The thing I remember most about the Dreamcast was the launch, because I had just started working at my local Babbage’s (they’re all GameStops now, I believe). I’ve never experienced a more exciting launch than when I got to be the guy handing out the consoles to the waiting fans.

I remember on Sept. 10, work was slow at Babbage’s, because every employing was carrying their newborn Chao around in their VMU.

Nothing earth-shattering, I know. But when I think of the Dreamcast, that’s the memory that springs to mind. Happy times.”

-Justin McElroy, Joystiq.com

“I was living in my first apartment away from home and trying to get into the routine of eating right, managing my money, and getting good sleep for my the job.

My roomate was working as manager for Game Crazy at the time and when Tony Hawk came out it ruined any responsible plans I had made. My entire existence for the next month was dedicated to playing, watching, and talking about this game anyway I could.

I remember it as one of the few times I was completely obsessed about a game to the point of unhealthiness! Dreamcast was new then, exciting, and I for one really liked the console design and feel. A fun, fun time in gaming for my friends and I.”

-Kyle Stevens, Kirby Krackle

“I remember the Dreamcast came out on a Thursday. I was living with my buddy Matt in Seattle at the time. He pre-ordered a DC and on the Thursday it came out, we both called in sick to work.

We headed down to EB Games, he bought the DC and Soul Caliber, I bought a controller and Power Stone. We went back to our place, hooked it up, and proceeded to spend the rest of the day playing those two games, ordering in pizza and drinking beer and having a great time. That’s my fondest memory of the Dreamcast!”

-Jim Demonakos, Emerald City ComiCon

“I was so excited about the Dreamcast, maybe more than any other console launch up to that point. Things were looking truly next gen, and it looked like this would be the big comeback we all wanted to see Sega have.

I waited in line at 4 in the morning in a mall food court outside of a Software Etc, which later became Game Stop. Got my DC, ran home, and proceeded to play Soul Calibur for roughly 3 days straight. Took all my sick days off.

In a way, the Dreamcast represents the last real time I have really gone crazy on launch day.

Soul Calibur was soooo great at the time. Played the living crap out of that game. I played a lot of NFL 2k as well, and later became enchanted by titles like Ready to Rumble, among others. Crazy Taxi also ate a bunch of my free time.”

WD - What is your fondest memory of playing the console? With friends/family?

“Probably the little home grown SC tournaments I’d have with friends an family. For me, that game defined the Dreamcast in kind of a Wii Sports on the Wii sort of way, but in a much cooler way.

Also, the first time I played NFL 2K with a friend over a modem was a really cool experience. There had never been anything like that on a console before and we could see the future as a result.”

-Scott Johnson, My Extra Life

“Back then I was writing for a Polish console magazine, Neo Plus. You can say I got it at launch. While I enjoyed Soul Calibur it wasn’t enough to pay for the console with my own money. The game that made me buy a DC was Crazy Taxi. It looked great and it was so awesome to perform all the crazy stunts while listening to “All I Want”.

I believe that Shen Mue was the best game on DC and one of the best ever made. You could spend long hours mastering your fighting technique, racing forklifts or just wandering around the city. Its production values were unmatched for some time as well. Oh, and I liked QTEs.

Crazy Taxi was frantically incredible, Street Fighter 3, MvC and Guilty Gears looked amazing in 2D and felt that way as well. Thanks to Virtua Tennis I learned that you can earn cash by beating other people in video games. Also, Metropolis Street Racer was the only racing game I wanted to play for a long, long time. Actually, when I was working from gog.com HQ (Warsaw, Poland) at the beginning of this year I was living at my friend’s apartment. When I found out that he had a DC I ordered used MSR and Virtua Tennis 2. Great games.

So, a friend of mine had a small store in Krakow, Poland selling video games. I was there almost every day just to hang out and play some games with the other guys. I remember that Virtua Tennis was a major hit in our community, with Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom following. I can’t recall any specific moment but I’m still in touch with some of the guys I met back then and we often chat about the days when gaming was something more than just sitting alone and pwning newbs.”

-Marty Kawa, games journalist turned developer and marketing guy

“Video game consoles were always a point of contention in my family- ever since i lost my Game Boy Pocket in a supermarket (along with Pokemon Red), my mother always told me that every video game system I own has to be bought with my own money- no one else’s. It was her way of instilling responsibility in me, but also put forth a sense of pride to the handhelds and consoles I bought forthwith.

I bought a replacement gameboy pocket, a gameboy color, but never owned a console of my own. I would be able to borrow a friend’s Nintendo 64 from time to time, but with the new generation of consoles on their way, my focus turned to the Dreamcast- the “It’s Thinking” commercials at the time had me in awe (seriously, look them up on youtube. They had charm.). I loved sonic, i loved Sega games in general, so a fondness grew for the system. I wanted to get one quite badly.

In the summer, my friend and I would make the trek, three miles in the hot sun to a nearby Sears with a demo station of Crazy Taxi 2 tucked away in the corner of the electronics department. We would play that game endlessly, to the point that the Sears employees would have to kick us off of the system. I vowed to my friend that I would buy a Dreamcast, to avoid the trek uphill in 100 degree weather.

I saved money. I recycled cans in my neighborhood- bags and bags of cans would be systematically cleaned and crushed to maximize the size of the trash bags before they would be stuffed into my mother’s car, to be driven to a recycling center a town or two over (i had actually called all the recycling places in town to try and find the best prices on aluminum cans). I’d do extra chores around the house, even some for neighbors for small amounts of money.

I kept as much of the money as i could, saving the money until I realized I could buy a refurbished Dreamcast from Gamestop. My mother drove me over one saturday afternoon and watched as I recieved the refurbished console, one controller, and a VMU in a non-descript white box. I held on to that box for dear life, cherishing my first real console as we got into the car. It was my new baby.

My mother paused, smiling as she saw the glee i had holding the system. “How happy are you right now?”

“Very” I replied, a sheepish grin forming on my face as i held it in my hands.

“Did you buy a game for it?” she asked as we pulled out of the parking lot and into the street.

I paused. My jaw dropped as I realized I had only enough money to buy the console and the VMU, and nothing else. My mother laughed, and drove me to Blockbuster. I ran around the aisles, finally picking out a copy of Shemnue from one of the lower shelves and running to her with a happy smile. The glee I had on my face playing that game is one I can still recall- even more so less than a month later, when my friend and I bought a copy of Crazy Taxi 2 to play together.

I still hold a soft spot for Shemnue and Crazy Taxi. To this day, that same Dreamcast works like a charm, and the joy and pride I have for the system goes a bit further than most- it was the first console I bought with my own money. I even named it- Naomi, after the arcade board it was built upon.

Naomi still has a place beside the newer generation of consoles, sitting ontop of the Wii, displaying it proudly as to show the first console I had poured my blood, sweat and tears into.”

-Daniel Orta, Team Mayhem Productions

“It was only a year ago that I first exposed myself to the majesty of the Dreamcast. I was too enamored with Nintendo around the time of the console’s release to pay attention to the praise it was drawing. Sadly, I only began experimenting with new consoles with the release of Sony’s Playstation 2 in 2000.

While visiting Chicago last November, a good friend from the area and I stopped by a retro game store. They had a Dreamcast in stock for around $30. It just so happened that I had $30 bucks so I splurged. Needless to say, I fell in love shortly after plugging it in and skating across the colorful landscape of Jet Grind Radio. Sorry for not doing that sooner Sega! I hope we can still be pals.”

-Wesley Johnson, InsulinFunk.net

For more thoughts on the console from our favorite community, the JPAG, check out this thread on their Facebook page.

Tags: Dreamcast, love, memories, retro gaming, Sega, Sega Dreamcast

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.