I was very late to the Dreamcast party, just got one last year (an Asian launch model in-box too!). It's an amazing console, surprising how many great games came to it for the 18 months it was out in the states. Wish it had been popular still when I was in elementary school, bringing your VMU to class would've been awesome for the time.
Buying a DC off my former roommate was one of the better gaming choices I've made in the last five years.
Though I've played less shmups (aside from Giga Wing 2) on it as opposed to games like Jet Grind Radio and Space Channel 5.
I have to work my way through my DC backlog, including Illbleed, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, and Cannon Spike (never got very far in practicing it).
I remember rolling into the local Electronics Boutique early 1999 and watching the demo of Soul Calibur on the display screen. I was blown away! I was speculating that Sega really had the edge on Sony with this one...
Then banging my head on the wall when Sega announced they were leaving the console making business...
I still love my Dreamy...
"When you can say you love shooting games, I get the sense you’re no longer a normal person. (laughs)" - S. Yagawa
Yeah, I recall seeing the DC demo kiosk set up at the local Software Etc. joint for the American launch debut...was told that it was a Japanese DC console. It looked impressive nonetheless but didn't buy one. It wasn't until the price dropped down to a respectable $120-$100 that I bought one. When I was checking out the various speciality game shops in Akihabara district back in late March of 2000, the going rate for a brand new official Sega DC VGA Box was a mere 6,000 yen. Sega was giving away cool DC themed promo swag bags at the Spring 2000 Tokyo Game Show as well. Still have one to this very day. You could see a huge banner promoting the upcoming Super Runabout 2 for the Japanese DC at the Spring 2000 TGS show was cool for it's time.
I recall placing pre-orders for the USA DC ports of Gunbird 2, Mars Matrix & GigaWing 2 through the local Software Etc. store...asked how many copies arrived and they'd say about four to five copies upon debut day at the most (and was considered the norm when it came to speciality game stores getting their alloted copies of DC shmup titles to sell anyways).
Just got into DC last year for Shmups. Did the 4 wire mod to play Japanese games, and picked up Guilty Gear. Soon found myself picking up a Naomi, which I turned into a net boot setup. So many great Shmup titles for Naomi/DC, I've only had time to dive into a few games at any real depth (Gunbird 2, Zero Gunner, Mars Matrix). Would love to setup a dedicated Naomi/DC cab some day!
I kind of want a Dreamcast, but I'm not sure if getting another console is such a good idea. I had a DC about 10 years ago, but I got it just for SF3. These days I have other better means to play Capcom fighters and I have grown to appreciate console exclusives. So, what exclusive titles are worth buying a Dreamcast for? I'm open for any genres which offer pick up and play satisfaction.
~The artist currently known again as TheRedKnight~
Fighting game tournament stuff: ninlia.home.blog
Recently started getting games for the Dremcast, the Dreamcast was as short lived outside of Japan as the Saturn was, so the amount of published copies per games was very low.
It didn't work at first, but a quick troubleshoot said the culprit was the (poorly secured) internal Saturn to DC converter. Ordered a new one last night.