Dreamcast turns 20 on 9/9/2019

[+Cafeman]

On 9/10/2019 at 11:35 PM, Austin said:

Sega Rally 2 is pretty good, no doubt! It's just very difficult and requires a LOT of practice. Its framerate is also inconsistent, jumping all over the place randomly, so it can be a little jarring at first. I recently picked up the Windows '98 version and have been playing it on old hardware. It's basically the same game but at a solid 60FPS.. it's so nice, haha. The Dreamcast version is still a great time though when you get the hang of it.

Thanks to the Lancia Stratos, I beat the 10 Year Championship, which is a personal best for me!  I have also come in 1st and unlocked the new cars for years 1 through 5 so far.  Why couldnt I do it 19 or  20 years ago? The frame rate doesnt seem as bad as complained about. I think it is the worst in Arcade Mode. I dont mind fluctuations when it stays sppedy and over 30. Much better effect than in games where it drops to sub 20s at times. 

[Austin]

19 minutes ago, Cafeman said:

The frame rate doesnt seem as bad as complained about. I think it is the worst in Arcade Mode. I dont mind fluctuations when it stays sppedy and over 30. Much better effect than in games where it drops to sub 20s at times. 

The issue with the framerate is that it's wildly inconsistent and is jarring when it jumps from 30 to 60, then back again. Some people won't find too much issue with it, others will depending how sensitive they are to that stuff.

[Flojomojo]

I loved the Saturn and was really hyped for the Dreamcast. I bought a Japanese Dreamcast in late 1998 and imported all the arcade games as they came out, since the language barrier was low. That was the first and likely last time I'll have to do that, now that we get pretty much everything pretty much on time in the West nowadays. The downside of having the machine almost a year early was that I didn't experience the launch in the same way as everyone else in the USA on 9/9/99, and I had some trouble getting USA games I wanted to play, such as SF Rush 2049 to run right on my machine. It was a great arcade-style box at the time, the last of its kind. 

 

Remember this silly video from IGN? "What a disappointment."

 

 

[derFunkenstein]

What a disappointment indeed. DOA2 on the PS2 is a huge disappointment after playing it on the Dreamcast. DOA2 Hardcore had the extra features, but it really does look better on the DC.

[Hydro Thunder]

Without getting too far off topic or being all "System Wars dood!"...

From my perspective as 1) a huge Sega and DC fan and 2) the manager of an EB games during the PS2 launch...

I think there was an -awful- lot of disappointment at the PS2 launch.  Partly due to the massive created shortage of systems, but more I'm talking about from the people that fought tooth and nail to get one, paid through the nose for one, only to have it basically be a glorified DVD player and / or Tekken Tag Tournament machine.  That launch list just simply stunk, and the first couple of models of systems had very bad reliability issues.  And this is coming from a guy who actually seriously likes The Bouncer  and loves Tekken Tag.  They had us pushing that fireworks game really hard, and people were shelling out $50 for those halfass RPGs that came out at launch, and were just really, really unhappy.  It came around. obviously, history tells that tale.

But man, I tell you, if that thing didn't play DVDs?  It may well not have become the sales monster that it did.

 

I love the DC, always will.  But tbh always hated the VMU.  Don't use one today; once I got one of the 4x Sega memory cards that's what I've run with ever since.  Neat idea, but that damned short battery life and incessant beeping, just not a fully worked out concept.

[derFunkenstein]

I agree on the PS2 launch lineup. There's a large list of games (here: https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/10/28/the-ps2-launch-titles) but so much of it is filler or was available on the Dreamcast. Time Splitters, SSX, and Tekken Tag Tournament are all I see on here that I was even interested in. 

 

Within a year, there would be a ton of great games on the PS2. Just not at launch.