Dreamcast: The Enduring Legacy | BitBox Review & Retrospective

[Music] when talking about the sega dreamcast it's easy to get tangled up in the history of events that led to its eventual demise but what was it on a surface level that led to said demise reactionary decision making if you know anything about business i know you're thinking that this is only natural as a business you do tend to react to consumers and competitors alike but there is a point when the reactionary method loses its usefulness and simply becomes chaotic this is what i believe doomed sega in the console hardware market let's start with the sega's 8-bit master system the sega master system the challenge will always be there in many ways the console itself was a reaction to nintendo's hot new nes console it was an 8-bit console like the nes it had a slew of arcade hits like the nes and it even had a light gun just like the nes however without something to compete with the likes of mario or zelda sega would not find great success with the master system not on a global scale anyways so what did they do react by releasing newer more capable hardware [Music] young bobby angles has a problem he needs to earn the respect of his peers so he gets the special sega genesis fighting system it comes with streets of rage too he saves forty dollars he gets more moves he gets more control now things are pretty much okay i said chocolate chip say it say it now this wasn't a bad reaction on their part they created the mega drive genesis with the intention of recreating the company's brand overall to appeal to an older demographic and they did this with the likes of sonic the hedgehog celebrity endorsements and a focus on sports titles this went over fairly well initially but like all things that sega did they reacted to nintendo's announcement of the super nintendo in a big somewhat reckless way [Music] how could you let that happen [Music] enter their first big reactionary moment of the 16-bit era the release of the sega cd add-on now how was this bit of hardware a reaction to the super nintendo well to understand that i need to be clear the super nintendo could do a lot of things that the genesis simply could not this put sega at a technical disadvantage in many respects and this is where the sega cd attempts to compete with nintendo's console in my opinion the sega cd was basically a one for one attempt at one upping nintendo's console the super nes had sample based sound capabilities so sega beat it with the cd format which obviously had cd quality audio the super nes had advanced sprite scaling and rotation capabilities so sega incorporated this into the sega cd as well and sega even had something the super nintendo never could full motion video games the problem with the sega cd wasn't that it was a bad idea or had poor hardware or software for that matter it was the price at 299 us dollars it was a tough pill for many people to swallow and with this large price tag came a small user base and little reason for developers to support the add-on when you decide to step up to this kind of power this kind of challenge this kind of flying crashing feeling when you decide to get serious there's only one place to come the games of super nintendo no one else creates this kind of experience because no one else creates these kinds of games now you're playing with power superpower nintendo pressed forward with the super nes and marketed it as a system that could do everything the genesis and sega cd could and then some and all without the need of an expensive add-on enter 1993 in the release of nintendo's seminal 3d shooter star fox this was true 3d on the super nes with no new hardware needed just the game cartridge this as primitive as it looks today was a really big deal you simply didn't see stuff like this on sega systems at the time not without the pricey sega cd add-on anyways sure they would ultimately release a version of virtual racing a fully 3d polygonal racer but this came to the sega genesis a year after star fox and therefore didn't make the same splash the nintendo shooter did one year later and we saw the release of donkey kong country for the super nintendo now here was a game that used actual textured 3d models to create some of the most impressively detailed sprites of the era even setting sprite work aside this game made extensive use of the super nintendo's large color palette and sound capabilities which put it well out of reach of anything on the genesis and like with star fox donkey kong country did not require the user to purchase any additional hardware so sega had a problem on its hands at this point their base system had a good install base but was unable to compete with the super nes in a few key ways at least on a technical level this could however be remedied a bit with the sega cd add-on but again due to its high price tag the user base was much much smaller than that of the genesis console itself so sega did what sega does best machine has appeared in homes across america double and redouble his power 32. six times more powerful than three there is no 32-bit super nes are we gonna see the games or what [Music] it was early 1994 when sega of america was directed by sega of japan to create a piece of hardware to quote bridge the gap between the 16-bit generation and the upcoming 32-bit generation the folks at sega of america were confused by this the genesis was selling well and therefore there was no perceived gap to bridge so where did japan get this idea from they got it from well japan you see while the genesis and sonic the hedgehog were a hit in europe and north america the same could not be said for japan this is why sega of japan felt the need to bridge the gap except they blatantly ignored the fact that they were the only ones seeing a gap that needed bridging [Music] to be fair the idea behind the 32x was to create a cheaper alternative to the upcoming saturn console so the plan was to create a 32-bit add-on for the genesis whose games would also work on the upcoming saturn then after the saturn launch sega would replace the genesis console with a hybrid genesis in 32x console known as neptune the idea was that the neptune would be a cheaper alternative to the more fully featured and cd capable saturn this idea was not unlike the relationship between the ps4 and the ps4 pro for example perhaps the biggest blunder in sega's history as a hardware maker the 32x launched to decent enough sales but the add-on met its end quickly only about six months after launch but why well it wasn't the price this time around the 32x was actually reasonably priced at a cool 150 dollars half of the sega cd's original cost furthermore this add-on did bring the system to a level which the super nintendo could not compete assuming the user had both a sega cd as well as a 32x and the developers made use of both add-ons but as i pointed out earlier the install base of the sega cd was meager and the 32x was just launching so it had no real install base to speak of so what incentive did developers have to make games using these three pieces of hardware even more confusing was sega's decision to release the 32x a completely new piece of hardware just six months before the launch of its true next-gen console the sega saturn this did not sit well with consumers or sega of america you see sega of america had been running a massive ad campaign promoting the 32x as an affordable option for genesis owners who wanted a taste of the next gen but weren't ready to splurge on a saturn and they did this at the behest of sega of japan no less and early adopters most likely bought into this concept but things didn't go the way sega of america had planned seigo of japan was more interested in developing software for its upcoming saturn console and in an effort to save money decided to end the life of the sega cd 32x and most importantly the genesis prematurely this left a lot of money on the table for sega and left a lot of third parties with unfinished products and no new consumers to sell them to and since sega wasn't pushing these pieces of hardware anymore there was little reason for anyone to continue developing for them now i want to pause here let's look at the way things have played out thus far first sega released its own 8-bit hardware but failed to steal away market share from nintendo then they tried again but with the 16-bit hardware and a new marketing strategy this plan managed to work out well for them but then they catch wind of the super nintendo and pop out the sega cd in response then a couple of years later they released yet another piece of hardware the 32x in response to things nintendo was doing with the super nintendo things that did not require the consumer to purchase more hardware mind you the chaotic nature of the company should already be clear at this point but if it's not then buckle up we're about to go for a ride you are approaching saturn you are only seconds away i have arranged for you to meet my companion he will lead you [Music] watch please don't disappoint him he doesn't like that [Music] we are five years away from entering the 21st century humankind stands on the edge of the interactive age you have come a long way but are you ready for the future introducing sega saturn hit it sega's next generation gaming platform revolutionary sports and arcade gameplay all with amazing new 3d experiences never before possible on home game systems wow sega saturn it's how you play the game [Applause] [Music] what's happening what's happening let's look at the chaotic development of the 32-bit sega saturn during its development sega envisioned the next generation as a cranius 2d era its competitors nintendo and the up and coming sony did not they saw the way forward was 3d plain and simple upon learning this sega scrambled and decided to add a second cpu to the saturn in order to give it a bit more 3d prowess the problem was that they provided little to no documentation or tools for developers to use when creating games for the platform which meant that much of its potential would never be realized this was the first nail in the coffin for sega's saturn in the spring of 1995 sega took the stage at the first ever electronics entertainment expo better known as e3 these days and what came next was the second nail in the coffin for the sega saturn a surprise launch of the system on that very day this blindsided developers as well as a vast majority of retailers as none of them were expecting it for another four to five months if you're wondering why this was such a big problem consider this when a new console launches many of its available titles tend to sell and sell well simply because consumers want something to play on their new system so when a system launches before said titles are ready the developers of those titles miss out on early adopter sales and on the retail side of things a new product launch is something retailers build towards they are responsible for much of the information that consumers receive on a product whether it's through promotions ads signage or whatever in addition to that is a relationship between the retailer and sega itself when sega only launches the saturn at select retailers all of the rest are left to miss out on those early adopter sales this soured many retailers in fact kb toys opted to stop carrying all sega products as a result of this mess and the icing on this cake comes in the form of price at 399 us dollars the saturn became a bitter pill to swallow for sega fans you know the people most likely to adopt a new console early in its life due to the high price of the sega cd the very recent launch of this 32x and the underwhelming support for both sega fans were starting to feel a bit burned by the company they once loved fast forward a bit and we see sega struggling to maintain market share stiff competition from nintendo and sony was bad enough but the console's architecture proved to be its biggest hurdle the saturn while powerful was simply too difficult to develop for making use of the full capabilities of the console was something that many developers simply didn't have the time and or money to do and this led to a slew of lackluster ports from sony's playstation a system that was far simpler in most respects [Music] now this isn't a deal breaker in and of itself the nintendo 64 was no walk in the park to develop for nor was the ps2 or ps3 but people bought those systems and because they built a solid install base many developers adapted to the hardware and jumped through the hurdles the saturn however had no such install base and this in my opinion was the final nail in the coffin for the sega saturn while the saturn did receive a number of early generation third-party hits such as tomb raider resident evil and wipeout this support quickly fizzled out early adopters and fans of sega would not get ports of other great games from that generation such as resident evil 2 silent hill metal gear solid or need for speed 2. sure sega still had a number of great games on its system especially in japan where the system did surprisingly well but it wasn't enough to compete with the likes of playstation or nintendo then at e3 of 1997 sega of america's ceo bernie stoller said that the saturn was not their future this angered a lot of people consumers retailers and developers alike sega was abandoning yet another piece of hardware and no one was happy about it now i've heard people defend this and i can understand why the saturn was barely keeping afloat and the software lineup was suffering as a result it made sense to focus on the future however this was yet another reactionary moment for sega the right thing to do would have been to support the crap out of the saturn and do everything they could to satisfy those consumers who did buy their product just look at the way nintendo handled the wii u [Music] yep the wii u was a failure it launched with a decent amount of third-party software but that support quickly dwindled but unlike sega nintendo saw the value in those consumers who did buy into the idea that was the wii u and so nintendo proceeded to develop and release content for the system wii u owners though they wouldn't get many third party games would be treated to a slew of nintendo developed stuff donkey kong country tropical freeze pikmin 3 super mario 3d world hd remasters of two zelda titles as well as an entirely new category of virtual console games it's often the blow significantly for nintendo's consumers and any developers who might want to return to nintendo platforms in the future sega did not do this with the saturn sure they had a few titles in the pipeline panzer dragon saga and shining force 3 for example but they were ready to move on to greener pastures leaving many fans and developers in the cold in 1998 it became clear why bernie stoller declared the saturn was not their future the sega dreamcast was officially announced and it was coming to japan in the fall of that year the dreamcast codenamed katana had two variations during development one powered by a 3dfx graphics chip and the other powered by a power vr graphics chip sega of america tended to prefer the 3dfx design due to it being easier to work with especially when porting games from the pc sega of japan however preferred the power vr graphics chip from video logic and ultimately sega would settle on this variant for the console however sega of japan wasn't tone deaf to the things that sega of america was praising about the 3dfx design while they did go with a different chip the importance of porting games from the pc was something the two agreed on and so sega ended up forging an alliance with microsoft to provide a customized variant of windows ce for the sega dreamcast what the heck is windows ce i hear you ask well the long and short of it is that it's a variant of windows that microsoft created for handheld pcs in the late 1990s it was likely chosen as a development option for the dreamcast due to it requiring just a small amount of processing resources especially when compared to the desktop version of windows at the time so wait the dreamcast is running windows no a lot of people have incorrectly made this assumption sega developed its own operating system for the dreamcast windows ce was simply an alternate operating system for developers who might prefer it many wonder why sega chose the power vr variant well the power vr line was popular due to its high performance to price ratio and since sega was developing its next-gen arcade hardware the naomi around the same time they wanted the two to share hardware for ease of porting the arcade was after all big business for sega so being able to easily bring those games home was hugely enticing so what is naomi well naomi is the arcade platform that sega developed and as i hinted at shared a lot in common with the dreamcast hardware both sported the hitachi sh4 cpu and both used videologic's power vr gpu however naomi used the more capable power vr2 chipset and had a little bit more video ram additionally naomi was capable of playing games from cartridge or sega's proprietary optical disc format the gd wrong wait gd rom what the heck is that well that's a fair question it's a gigabyte disk that sega created in an effort to sidestep piracy and the licensing cost of dvd while also mitigating the limits of the cd-rom format while cds could hold roughly 700 megabytes of data and dvds could hold roughly four gigabytes of data on a single layer disk the gdrom disk could hold one gig of data or a thousand megabytes this put it comfortably in between both cds and dvds in terms of storage capacity anyways naomi was capable of using the dreamcast's newfangled memory card as well dubbed the visual memory unit sported an 8-bit cpu in a tiny black and white screen with a resolution of 48 by 32 pixels it sure didn't hold a candle to the likes of well any portable system from the era but it wasn't meant to though it sports a directional pad and a total of four face buttons its used as a dedicated gaming device was limited to small mini games such as the somewhat famous tamagotchi-like chao raising minigame that came with every copy of sonic adventure while this is cool in its own way i've always found its in-game utility to be far more appealing in the resident evil titles for example your health can be seen on the vmu screen while you play the game it was a bit like the concept of the wii u except 14 years earlier of course the problem with this thing was that the screen was not backlit so it was useless in the dark and it ate batteries like crazy as i said earlier sega's naomi could also make use of these vmus the idea was simple store your character data from the dreamcast version of a game onto the vmu then plug that same vmu into a naomi arcade cabinet and bam your custom character was now part of the arcade game cool enough right but what games made use of this functionality well sega's f355 challenge allowed you to save track times and transfer them between home and arcade while spawn and capcom vs snk let you transfer character stats between the arcade and dreamcast versions of those games a few other naomi games also supported the vmu but most of its functionality seems to be limited to the aforementioned uses still it was a neat feature to be sure in the end the sega dreamcast would end up with a 200 megahertz hitachi sh4 cpu 100 megahertz power vr gpu and a yamaha sound chip the system would also include 26 megs of ram 16 megs for the system eight megs for the graphics and two megs for sound additionally the system would include the aforementioned gdrom drive and for the first time in console history a 56k modem when the dreamcast launched in november of 1998 in japan it had some pretty lackluster titles at launch godzilla generations pen pen tri-island july and virtual fighter 3 of the four games only virtua fighter 3 managed to sell very well but the reason the dreamcast stumbled out of the gate in japan might be a bit more complex than you think you see the saturn was doing well in japan at the time there was no real need for the dreamcast in 1998 but sega launched it anyways and judging by the lackluster launch lineup sega probably rushed it a bit but what about the other territories specifically north america this is the day you have trained for the day you have studied for utilize your superior skills your superior ryan you're gonna get root shut up quadruped [Applause] sega aimed to correct the course with the dreamcast and it mostly succeeded when it launched in north america one of the first things they did to accomplish this was by simply setting a solid release date september 9th 1999 or 9999 this date did not change and there were no surprise launches like they had with the saturn the dreamcast was out on 99.99 and that was the end of it they also addressed the price concern in a big way as well 199 us dollars yep this system would launch for half of the price of the previous sega console this was a big deal as i put the system within range of affordability for many people and sega didn't stop there impressively enough they managed to secure over 20 games at launch i specifically remembered the lead up to launch day it seemed like new games were being confirmed for launch nearly every single day did they end up coming out as planned i have no idea but one thing was clear the dreamcast had the absolute best launch lineup of any console up to that point in fact i'd say there's a good chance that it had a more robust launch lineup than any other console to this day among the many titles available were a few key show stealers soul calibur the now infamous weapons based fighter from namco sonic adventure the long awaited three iteration of sonic the hedgehog nfl 2k a true next-gen american football title and one of my personal favorites ready to rumble boxing a wacky arcade-style boxing game in the vein of nintendo's punch-out sega was sure to fix many of the issues that faced the sega saturn when it came to dreamcast one way they did this was by releasing new titles in the sonic the hedgehog and the fantasy star series sonic adventure and fantasy star online they also secured much better third party support which resulted in superior ports of games like resident evil 2 and 3 legacy of kane soul reaver and a slew of tomb raider titles additionally they managed to secure a number of high-profile third-party exclusives early on including capcom's resident evil code for and bizarre creations metropolis street racer sega itself would also develop a number of standout titles that would remain exclusive to the dreamcast for some time jet grind radio space channel 5 zambadi amigo and the much hyped shenmue just to name a few during the dreamcast run sega seemed to be in tune with the customers for the first time since the sega genesis days and it showed when other consoles were seeing trend setting games like gran turismo super smash brothers tekken goldeneye 007 and final fantasy vii sega threw its hat in the ring with the likes of sega gt and power stone soul calibur quake 3 arena and skies of arcadia it was truly an awesome time to be a sega fan the awesome software available on the dreamcast didn't stop with the games either as i mentioned earlier every dreamcast came with internet capabilities out of the box and a web browser from planet web this was really cool back then because a computer was more or less required if you want to get online and now dreamcast owners could get online from the comfort of their couch then there was the bleemcast emulator software from bling this was a highly controversial release that would eventually lead to blame's demise the plan was that blame would release four blame packs each pack giving the dreamcast the ability to play about 100 different playstation 1 games bleem also had planned to offer a blame pad controller as well as an adapter that would allow you to use your ps1 controller on the dreamcast console obviously sony wasn't having this and took blame to court the funny thing sony actually lost the case but the sad thing is bleem went broke due to court fees incurred by sony taking them to court over and over again in the end bleemwood massively scaled back its blamecast plan to just three single game packs one for tekken 3 one for gran turismo 2 and one for metal gear solid no accessories would be released by the company ultimately bleem would prove to be a cool novelty as it would upscale and smooth out the image of these ps1 games and make them look super sharp take a look for yourself [Music] [Music] so [Music] even today the system has a rabid fan base who do whatever they can to keep the dream alive a movie player check an mp3 player check a slew of emulators check so wait a minute dreamcast was doing so much right clearly so what happened well a number of things unfortunately [Music] around the same time the dreamcast came out cd burners were on the rise and sega did not plan for it they had banked on the gdram format thwarting piracy but it didn't work out that way and piracy was rampant on the system the system itself wasn't exactly quiet now i know this seems nitpicky especially when most of sony's consoles have been rather loud generation after generation but at the time this was not the case and a lot of people immediately became concerned that their dreamcast was faulty just because the thing was so loud it wasn't faulty the gears just needed better grease and the fan well it wasn't designed with quiet acoustics in mind a lot of the games that showed up on the dreamcast were not exactly new many of them were ports of playstation games which were already several months old sure they looked much better as they were based on the pc versions of those games but they were all old news by the time they hit dreamcast a number of key developers did little to nothing on sega's little white box most notable was the absence of electronic arts which many people think caused the downfall of the dreamcast many dreamcast owners were also hoping for something from squaresoft or konami but no luck the dreamcast ads were not exactly on point you either had these cryptic ones which i really love if i'm being honest or these confusing cg party style ads that say very little for the games [Music] man stay off the light speed [Applause] was an ambitious open world epic from the mastermind of yu suzuki of virtual fighter fame and it flopped commercially that's not to say that it wasn't incredibly innovative however the dreamcast was most popular in north america yet some heavily promoted games such as headhunter and shenmue 2 never found their way to the states then there were a slew of games that were planned for the dreamcast but abruptly cancelled when sega pulled the plug on the console i was stoked for konami's castlevania resurrection i had hoped that this would have been the first great 3d castlevania but i guess we'll never know there is a solid chance that much of the work done on this game went on to be poured into the ps2 castlevania titles however believe it or not bungie's halo was originally planned for release on the dreamcast it is important to note though that at this early stage halo was still more of a real-time strategy game than a first-person shooter and a mac exclusive still if you want to play some bungee shooters on the dreamcast a fan has ported the developer's earlier work the marathon series to the system remedies max payne would have been interesting to see on the dreamcast it strained the mighty xbox at times and the ps2 struggled with this game but i'd still like to see how it would have played on sega's console [Music] who remembers toe jam and earl well today mineral 3 was originally planned for the dreamcast and got far enough along in development that the leaked code is actually playable and can be bought or burned as a reproduction disk this game would go on to be officially released on microsoft's original xbox [Music] other titles were planned for release but never hit the dreamcast the pc classic half-life and the arcade dogfighter propeller arena were both basically complete when the plug was pulled on them to be fair propeller arena was set to release in september of 2001 then 911 happened so it would have been a bit tasteless for sega to release such a game at that time luckily these are both available as reproductions as well [Music] money is not to be wasted unless you're sega then you can't help but waste money researching and developing hardware that never sees the light of day believe it or not sega had more than seven add-ons and or peripherals in development for the dreamcast that never saw a release a zip drive a dvd drive an mp3 playing vmu a standalone dvd player with a dreamcast built in a set-top box with a dreamcast hardware built in a karaoke system and a webcam called the dream eye and this isn't even all of them sure the dreamcast was thinking but was sega and then there was sega's big gamble sega net this internet service aimed to unite gamers from all over the world through their dreamcasts it worked well but it had a few key problems firstly it was for all intents and purposes a standard internet service provider and it cost a bit more than many of his competitors likely due to sega's partnership with a t so in the end sega net was not a gamble that paid off for sega it did however pave the way for the rise of xbox live [Music] believe it or not the dreamcast still receives new game releases every year some are ports such as doom rise of the triad or another world but others are all new original games pier solar and the great architects a jrpg from developer watermelon rush rush rally an isometric racing game from the senile team or vulgar the viking the roguelike action game from crazy viking studios but we can't forget the hardware side of things amazingly things are progressing rapidly in this department as well there's the dc hdmi mod the dream power supply unit or dream psu the gdmu wireless peripherals a digital audio mod region free mods fan battery and led mods then some awesome vmu mods that can give your vmu a rechargeable battery and a backlit screen and beyond the mod community is a wealth of support from the likes of the bihar bros hyperkin and hd retro vision as well as many many other companies sega even partnered with retro bit in 2017 to release new wired and wireless genesis saturn and dreamcast controllers based on the original designs then we have the retro fighters with this awesome redesign of the original dreamcast controller which seems like an actual upgrade in a lot of ways i do hope to get my hands on one of these very soon behar bros are mostly known for their excellent vga boxes but have since expanded to include an hdmi box as well as a custom case for your dreamcast [Music] hd retrovision and hyperkin both offer a variety of video cables while hd retrovisions component cables are the way to go if you want the best overall picture hyperkin does offer a reasonably priced hdmi option check retro rgb for more info on this [Music] let's say you want to play the dreamcast today maybe it's your first time or maybe you're seeing all these sweet games and are anxious to revisit them whatever the case there are a few things you should know regarding the video output and quality what you have been seeing in this video is more or less a best case scenario i'm using a niko vga box to connect my dc to the open source scan converter or ossc the ossc is similar to an upscaler except that it simply multiplies the horizontal and vertical lines of an image so that standard 720x480 resolution being output from the dreamcast is effectively multiplied to 1440x960 nearly full hd but that's not all i'm also running that 960p image through my denon receiver and letting it perform its own upscaling of the image all the way up to a full 3840x2160 yep full 4k then the signal is being sent to my avermedia live gamer 4k capture card so this setup is as you can tell a premium way to experience dreamcast however if you don't have this setup or something similar don't worry all you really need to get a great picture out of a dreamcast is a vga box and a tv or computer monitor with a vga input [Music] that being said the options from hyperkin pound and hd retrovision do exist and all have their pros and cons while the hyper can and pound options are easily the cheapest and simplest way to go to get an okay picture from your dreamcast the hd retrovision component cable coupled with a 99 dollar retro tank 2x would get you a much much better pitcher alternatively the acura hdmi box from the bihar bros is a genuinely good hdmi solution much better than what you get from hyperkin or pound though it does cost a bit more [Music] but let's say you aren't opposed to emulation heck maybe you're just like me and just super curious to see what can be done with these games through an emulator that's where redream comes in unlike other options such as null dc or rycast retrain is streamlined to near perfection you simply start it up double click on your game and you're off the one and only real hurdle might be the fact that the hd and 4k rendering is kept behind a paywall however for a measly one-time fee of five dollars you can play your dreamcast with true internally rendered 4k visuals is this worth the cost well i'll let you [Music] decide [Music] [Music] the sega dreamcast may have been sega's final console but it has remained alive in the minds of those who played it it did a lot of wacky experimental and just plain fun things that most other console makers rarely did it was birthed by a sega who was at the peak of its creativity and willingness to try new ideas it's hard to even categorize some of the things you saw in dreamcast c-man jet grind radio omicron these are all wildly experimental games then you had trend setting games before the trends were even set you had rhythm games like space channel 5 and samba d migo long before star hero or rock band were even a thing you had quake 3 arena an unreal tournament with fully realized online play long before the likes of halo 2. and you had the masterful mmo that was fantasy star online showing up on the dreamcast before other mmos had even started development for other consoles and then you had the massive go anywhere do anything open world gameplay of shenmue long before grand theft auto 3 came along to light the gaming world on fire i'm going to end this history lesson and get nostalgic you see the dreamcast is the first console that i just had to have at launch and in order to afford it i mowed grass for months leading up to the council's launch the problem was that i started saving my money a bit too late which meant i was not getting the dreamcast on launch day a few of my friends did however and we played the crap out of it after watching me drool over the thing for a few days my friend's mom asked me why i don't use my money that i saved to buy one for myself and so i tell her that i'm about 70 short still and she walks off a few minutes later she comes back and asks if we are ready to go we didn't really know what she was talking about we didn't plan on going anywhere but you can see where this is going she gave me the additional funds so that i could get my dream cast right away the stipulation was that i just mow their grass for a few weeks to pay it back so we arrived at toys r us the only place that seemed to have the dreamcast in stock and i got my dreamcast as soon as we get back to the car she asked me if the dreamcast came with any games i tell her that it doesn't but it comes with a playable demo disc then comes the next surprise an early birthday present since my birthday was only a few weeks away she decided to let me pick a game which of course had to be soul calibur [Music] here was a game that completely outclassed the arcade version it was gorgeous and it was packed with content i spent hours playing through the single player campaign with each and every fighter unlocking more along the way then i jumped into the single player mission mode and spent probably another 20 hours on that it was a great game that set the bar incredibly high for other games on the system the funny thing is that the dreamcast fever didn't really stop for me the soul calibur behind me i began acquiring new games at a blistering pace here are some of the standouts [Music] jack ryan radio was a weird game when i first saw it i couldn't stop thinking about how weird and japanese it looked it featured cel-shaded graphics before they were cool and had a upbeat heavily japanese soundtrack but the real hook for me came from the graffiti mechanic now analog sticks were nothing new during this era but here was a game using them in a way which i had never even thought of before shenmue is a strange name for a video game knowing its english meaning is spirit tree doesn't really help matters either though it had a weird name it had a lot of promise i was a huge fan of virtual fighter so when i learned that the man behind those games you suzuki was also a man behind shenmue sega had my attention was this the fabled virtual fighter rpg i kept hearing rumors about well no it wasn't but it was something special nonetheless the game promised a large open world set in 1980s japan where you could do anything you wanted previews would regular show off the main character playing with some kids in the street or getting an item from a vending machine or even working a job to sweeten the package even more this role-playing game had real-time combat in the van of virtual fighter and a sprawling revenge story to experience shenmue is also responsible for the birth of the quicktime event where the player is expected to hit a particular button at exactly the right moment in order to succeed now this sounds pretty standard today i get that but this was before open world games were even a thing especially in the console space all in all shenmue sounded truly next-gen in every sense of the word so did shenmue live up to the hype well yes and no nostalgia definitely paints the game in a better light due to everything the game did to establish the open world template that we know today was it the perfect masterpiece it was hyped up to be of course not but it did so much and it did it so well that is a gem regardless of its faults [Music] capcom was a big supporter of the dreamcast and among the many titles they released more than a few stood out above much of the dreamcast library one of those was powerstone specifically powerstone2 this was a 3d arena brawler that felt a lot like nintendo's super smash brothers but had just enough of that capcom flare to help it stand on its own throughout the battle players would make a mad dash to gather each of the power stones which would allow them to turn into super powered warriors for a short time additionally the stages would all feature various levels of destructibility and item pickups all things that were done in smash brothers but felt very comfortable here add in the fact this sequel allowed four player multiplayer and you had one heck of a party game on your hands [Music] then we have resident evil code veronica i was in full survival horror mode when this game was announced in you know what i'm just going to leave this to someone far better verse in both resident evil and survival horror than myself here is jared from avalanche reviews to tell you why code veronica was and still is an awesome game growing up me and my brothers were relatively poor which sadly meant we couldn't experience a new console release until enough time it went by that people were selling theirs or some kind of price drop was instituted but for the first time in my life i was able to enjoy a new console generation at launch so there we were showing up to the dreamcast party on time and when we had that white box under our very own tv we played the obvious contenders everyone remembers from the era you know your sonic adventures and soul caliburs but to be honest those aren't the titles i think of when i look back on that time as a resident evil fanatic my main goal was snatching up a copy of re code veronica as soon as it released and you could understand why i'd be so excited up until cv's release resident evil had a very recognizable look and you guys know exactly what i'm talking about low poly 3d pre-rendered backgrounds the works but i remember seeing a leaked video of an early version of code veronica shown on tech tv and i nearly lost my mind the graphics looked so incredible when set against what i was used to with the series and the camera instead of being stuck in a stationary position seemed to follow claire around on a set track at the time i thought this was the future of the series and a sign that we had nothing but good times ahead how young and ignorant i was well i had to wait nearly a year until the game would finally drop but there was a wrench in this plan my dad had recently accepted a job that would move us out of tennessee and back to the city i was born in miami so i worked out a plan with my mom if she would pre-order the game through one of those odd mail order systems that somehow still existed well into the 2000s then i would pay her back on a weekly basis we knew that we'd be spending the summer staying with a relative while my dad found us a place to live in miami so we had the game shipped there and as luck would have it i showed up to this house the very day the game did i rushed that package and tore into it then grabbed my dreamcast from the car and had it hooked up in record time then i reached for that power button and i swear i must have played through that game four or maybe five times the few weeks that we stayed there now i didn't have access to the internet there and after spending all my money on the game had nothing left over to pay for a strategy guide so i had to sit down with that game and figure out every puzzle on my own which was incredibly satisfying often times people criticize the game for switching main characters at inopportune times so that one may have an entire arsenal in their inventory but the others left with a knife and a blue herb to use in the last boss fight but thanks to the situation i was in i had no choice but to master the game thanks to those countless sessions of code veronica nowadays i can get through it by memory with little to no issues of course that's no objective value statement as everyone knows the game definitely has its problems but nostalgia aside cv really represented something special for me i didn't know it at the time but this would be the last time i ever played a true survival horror title bearing the name resident evil after this it would be all arcade action and over-the-shoulder shooting for years to come but you honestly couldn't have picked a better entry to go out on the small tweaks made like a semi-mobile camera and dual wielding guns gave me the sense that capcom was interested in progressing the series forward but still wanted to keep the spirit of the originals alive i remember specifically assuming this would be the slow pace the series would continue to take slowly adding new mechanics or systems but keeping the experience both fresh and familiar sadly that would not be how the series would move forward and ironically they eventually ended up having to return to their survival horror foundation to keep the franchise from going under but even now that ari seems to be on a relatively unexpected comeback i still look back on my time with code veronica and smile even now i can see the dreamcast signature dithering pattern on the backgrounds or the innovation that was having claire's condition right there on the vmu so you could check your health without going into the inventory and sure maybe this experience is propped up more by my rose tinted glasses than the actual quality of the game but forever that game will define my experience with the dreamcast and every time i hear that jet engine of a cooling fan spin up at what seems like 4 million rpm i get the beginnings of a smile and i think back on code veronica and my time on that platform so here's to you sega you not only gave us an insanely innovative console before you left the market but also an re experience i will cherish for the rest of my life there is a reason that us dreamcast fans have 9999 seared into our brains it was the day that revealed to us what a pure gaming console could be when developers were untethered and were allowed to try new things many people look at the dreamcast as a huge failure but i'd argue that its seemingly everlasting lifeline that consists of its fans indie developers and the homebrew community might make the dreamcast one of the most successful consoles of all time [Music] you

Channel: Bit Box Gaming

Views: 492

Rating: 4.8709679 out of 5

Keywords: video games, xbox, pc, steam, playstation, nintendo, sega, retro, 8-bit, 16-bit, indie, review, preview, retrospective, gaming, bitbox, bit box, bitboxgreg, bit box greg, dreamcast, history, naomi, homebrew

Id: vGqOYrHHZlk

Length: 58min 31sec (3511 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 06 2020