Sega Dreamcast...yes or no?

[Todd1780]

Hey guys. I'm trying to decide whether or not to get a Dreamcast. Our local retro games shop has a black Dreamcast that the shop owner cant seem to get rid of. It works and comes with one controller and all the hook-ups (no VMU though).
He wants $30 for it, which seems reasonable. I'm just not very familiar with the console. At the time the Dreamcast was released, I was a pc gamer and had no interest in consoles at the time.
Is this a console worth having? Are there many good games out for it?
I'm a huge Sega fan (love my Genesis), but I just dont know enough about this one to decide if I should buy it or not.
I can drop the $30 for the Dreamcast, or use the $30 to pick up 15 more Genesis games. Any advice would be helpful.

[tcv]

Well, I haven't played with one since they were a viable console, but I loved my Dreamcast. Power Stone, Sonic Advance (the first one), were a couple of my favorites.

[SRG]

If you like Gun Games there were several good ones, I used to play the crap out of House of the Dead. Soul Caliber was INCREDIBLE!

$30 seems likes a good deal for a black, as a white one is valued around $25

[GameGavel]

Uh. Hell yes, pick it up. One of the best systems ever and tons of great games. I will get a list together for ya, unless someone beats me to it :)

[Dhalamar]

Get it. Period. You shouldn't have even asked about something like that, especially at that price.

Just get the damn thing. :) Not only are the lion's share of the games for it awesome (including arcade ports that are BETTER than their arcade versions like Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Soul Calibur), the homebrew/emulation capabilities of the thing ... it's beat out by ONLY the original Xbox as far as consoles are concerned.

Just get it, and hit us up for both legit and ... *ahem* less than legit ... games and homebrew. http://www.dcisozone.com is a great place to start.

Again. FUCKING GET IT. NOW. lol

[Dhalamar]

No offense, but dude. How can you call yourself a "huge Sega fan" and even ASK a question like this. :)

[chalksalad]

I agree. You should definitely get it for that price and you'll find plenty of good games. The Fighting games and Shooters are in a class of their own, lightgun games as mentioned above and some amazing JRPGs.
Also from a collectors point of view keep in mind that there is a high degree of emotion running within the gaming community for this piece of hardware. It's everybody's favorite and for me it's because it never fulfilled it's potential. It wasn't canceled because it bombed but more because SEGA was running out of cash and couldn't support it.

[Todd1780]

No offense, but dude. How can you call yourself a "huge Sega fan" and even ASK a question like this. :)

No offense taken...I guess I see it this way.....
I have a thing for cartridge based systems. I'm not sure why but I've always been wary of disc based systems since I bought the Saturn.
I have almost every system Sega has released (Japanese and American), I guess thats maybe why I ignored the Dreamcast when it was released. It was disc based!
Anyway...I do have a couple questions.
1st....do I need to mod the Dreamcast to play homebrew games?
The same shop that is selling the black Dreamcast has a couple of white ones for $20. I want the black one for my collection, but I can buy one of the white ones if I need to mod the console.
2nd...ok I guess I only had 1 question. A list of Dreamcast games I should pick up would be helpful.

[Duke.Togo]

Get a VGA box, a VMU, and a rumble pack to get started. DC doesn't need modded, there are boot discs that you can burn. I'd spend the money on getting the hardware, as you can always pick up software later and there are... less scrupuloous way to play games. The VGA box is a must, the difference in graphics is just ridiculous compared to the default cables.

[Gordon Bennett]

I'll chime in with the rest to say yes, definitely pick up the Dreamcast. The planets must have been aligned just right when Sega created it, because they managed to get everything absolutely right. It's a fantastic console that was sadly overshadowed by the forthcoming PS2 and its DVD capability, yet has become legendary among the gamers who have owned one.

It's also a marvelous platform for homebrew. The disc protection built in is incredibly weak, as Sega were probably operating under the assumption that their custom 1GB GD-ROM format that combines a CD and high-density CD portion would be enough to deter copying. Consequently it is quite easy to either use a boot disc or to burn a bootable disc. I haven't used mine in a while, but even then I was able to find and build a great customised CD of the homebrew that I wanted with a nice frontend that booted and played flawlessly.

[BydoEmpire73]

I love the Dreamcast - it's one of my top 5 favorite consoles. But they didn't get everything right - the controller is pretty uncomfortable and the dpad is absolutely awful. But other than that, it's magic. Tons of great games, inexpensive to collect for - go for it!

[miner2049er]

I never had a problem with the controller tbh, though it is dumb to have the cable emerge at the back the way it does.

[BydoEmpire73]

All of my DC dpads are really floaty (and I've got 4-5 of them). Try beating the boss of Third Strike with that thing and try not to curse. Despite that the DC is home to some of my favorite 2D fighters ever (Capcom vs. SNK being one).

[Dhalamar]

All of my DC dpads are really floaty (and I've got 4-5 of them). Try beating the boss of Third Strike with that thing and try not to curse. Despite that the DC is home to some of my favorite 2D fighters ever (Capcom vs. SNK being one).

I always liked the directional pad on the Dreamcast, especially for shmups. :P

[chalksalad]

The VGA box is a must, the difference in graphics is just ridiculous compared to the default cables.
Does this play nice on LCD monitors as well as older CRTs? Has anyone ever encountered any problems with this gizmo, like is it compatible with all games?

I'm asking before I spend the 25 or more British Pounds to get it

[miner2049er]

There is one on Gamegavel.co.uk

http://www.gamegavel.co.uk/html/category/4700-1.html

[Dhalamar]

The VGA box is a must, the difference in graphics is just ridiculous compared to the default cables.

If I remember right, the Dreamcast was the first console with support for high definition 480p due to that VGA Box. :)

[Duke.Togo]

Does this play nice on LCD monitors as well as older CRTs? Has anyone ever encountered any problems with this gizmo, like is it compatible with all games?

I'm asking before I spend the 25 or more British Pounds to get it

It works great on my LCD HDTV through the VGA input. It isn't normally compatible with all games, but you can create a boot cd that will make them work if I remember correctly. Most of the games I have support it, so I have never had to mess with it.

Again, I highly recommend it. Composite on my HDTV looks like a blurry mess compared to the crispness of VGA.

[JoshWright]

Dreamcasts are incredible machines and had some of the best games I ever played on them. The sonic adventures were awesome, and the fighting games like powerstone and soul caliber kicked mighty ass. Also, having a memory card that you could open without connecting it to the system and know what was on it was WAY before its time.

here is a list of some of the greatest titles I played on it

Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000
Crazy Taxi 2
Dead or Alive 2
Gauntlet Legends
Grandia II
Guilty Gear X
Ikaruga
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
Phantasy Star Online
Power Stone
Power Stone 2
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure 2
Soulcalibur
Star Wars Episode I: Racer
Tomb Raider Chronicles

And those are just MY favs. I'm sure the guys here can add to it with more of their own. For me, the dreamcast was a fighting games paradise. Capcom had a serious title run for a long time called Star Gladiator, which is where we get Hyato from the MVC games from. I loved that game a whole lot. Its sequel, Plasma Sword- Nightmare of Bilstien was plagued with problems, glitches, and freezes, but I loved that game all the same.

Good Luck, and happy hunting.

[Leathco]

Go get that Dreamcast.......NOW!

Even if you ignore the original game releases, the homebrew alone makes the thing a beast. They got Mame4All running on it, TONS of Beats of Rage ports, decent emulators for NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, and Game Gear, a good port of Tyrian, ScummVM, Doom and support for different WAD files, , Hexen, Heretic, Rise of the Triad, a whole homebrew disc of VMU games (yes, you can load small games right to the VMU and play them, including homebrew VMU games), a handfull of post-mortem Dreamcast shooters such as the excellent Last Hope, and I''m gonna stop here cause this is turning into a crazy run-on sentence.

Than you got classics such as Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Hydro Thunder, Shenmue, D2, Marvel vs. Capcom, and tons more. And DO NOT overlook D2, give it a couple hours, its incredibly deep. Of course, any of the US released Warp games were awesome, with the big 3 being D (on 3DO amd Playstation ), Enemy Zero (on Saturn) and D2 (obviously on Dreamcast).

[frootloop]

Dude! I have to agree with everyone else here. The Dreamcast was Sega's finest moment - don't delay, just pick it up already! Some seminal titles that you cannot miss:
Soul Calibur
Seaman
Ikaruga
Jet Grind Radio
Rez
Samba De Amigo
Virtua Tennis 1/2
Crazy Taxi
Ferrari F355 Challenge
Metropolis Street Racer
Street Fighter 3
Skies of Arcadia

.. and dozens more!

[chrisbid]

not all games support the vga box, but the majority that do not are mostly the cheap windows ce ported games.

30 dollars is about as cheap as the dreamcast is going to get. you could hold out for one 20 or less, but dreamcasts are not as plentiful as original playstations. they will begin to get scarce like saturns are now.

i would also recommend picking up a cheap keyboard or keyboard adapter and splurging on typing of the dead. quirky sega at their absolute best.

[teknohed]

Dreamcast is a great system. I say pull the trigger on this one.